Echoes from the past
by Leserei
Summary: The life of Stephanie Plum changes with a series of events that will eventually lead her to the truth.
1. Prologue Chapter 1 & 2

Prologue

I am sat quietly within the hustle and bustle all around me. I would say someone looking at me would think I was contemplating, and I suppose I was. There's nothing more soul baring than remembering things that have happened to you, how you spoke with someone, listened to another and I suppose reacted to a situation. Sudden noises had me looking up, I wasn't sitting with my back to the wall, but my viewpoint gave me a panorama of all that was happening around me. I focused beyond the small area I was in, to the movement of people beyond, so many people, all of them intent on where they were going, a single purpose in mind. Some were walking, others almost at a run, moving in all directions, yet seldom coming into contact with anyone else. There were colours from coats and scarfs, with every mode of fashion I had ever seen. Old people, with faces that could tell you a lifetime of stories, unseeing eyes, shuffling with their sticks and walkers. Young mothers with toddlers running to keep up, being held so tightly by their little hands. And the young business men and women, striding with a confidence of power, in their suits and shiny new shoes, heads held high and shoulders back, giving out an aura that had others moving out of their way. A rumble reverberated through the floor signaling the arrival of another train, then as if by magic a surge of people were leaving the hallway on their way home or back to work on the train that had just arrived. I returned my thoughts to the task at hand, and my mind to the thoughts I needed to organize. My life had changed in so many ways, I could never have envisaged, never have dreamed of how different my life had become and I would never return to the way I had once lived before. But that was not what I needed to think about, I had to concentrate, but I was having an internal fight with myself, do I or don't I? Am I important enough? Will anyone be interested? Will I upset or alienate others? Or will someone say "well done"? Someone had told me I needed to make the decision for me, for how I would feel. So here I go again a decision that I needed to make, that would allow me to move forward with a clear conscience, proud of who I was and where I had come from, perhaps also for those who were no longer here to make that decision themselves.

Chapter 1

For a morning in April I felt on top of the world. My name is Stephanie Plum and the reason for this euphoric feeling? Well I had just deposited cheques into my account from apprehending three skips. That meant my rent was paid up, not only for April but for May as well, and I could now replenish my cupboards with groceries. The gas tank in my beat up Nissan Pathfinder was full, and courtesy of my favorite Merry Men, had all parts working efficiently. I was now on my way to fulfill the second job I did as a researcher at Rangeman. I exited my car in the garage and waved at the camera, even though I was never sure who was monitoring, it was now a custom I always performed. From the elevator on five I headed for my cubbie ready to see what searches had come to me by email. The control room was working with a buzz with movement from desk to desk, Hal stopped by to place a coffee on my desk, bless him he must have seen me coming up.

"Morning Steph, looking perky this morning. Here's a coffee just how you like it"

"Thanks Hal, you know you're one of my favorite people?"

That had him blushing, as he turned and walked away to go back to his desk. As I looked around I realized that there was no sign of any of the core team and I had no awareness that Ranger was in the building. Now here's the thing about Ranger, to anyone looking at him he is the vision of hotness, most women walk into walls at the sight of him. At 6 foot he has the body of Adonis, with long dark hair often tied back in a ponytail and the skin tone of mocha latte. His eyes can change from chocolate brown to black, depending on his mood, and he has the movements of a sleek black panther. I, however, know a little bit more than most women. I can now detect changes in his mood from the expressions of his face and what the inclination of a word might mean. He is really my best friend, my occasional lover and someone I trust with my life. But I can't relinquish my heart to him, so for the moment I relish the friendship he shares with me.

Only three searches requested for today, all potential new clients with no signs indicating they are not who they say they are, so leaving the print outs in my out box I shout a goodbye to anyone listening and make my way back to my car. A stop at the grocery, manic moments with the trolley, which seemed determined to steer its self and I was parking my car. All right, I still ended up parked at the back of the lot by the skip, but I was pleasantly surprised when Dillon opened my door and offered to help me unload my shopping bags.

"Hey Dillon, everything OK?"

"Yeah Steph, I saw you parking and needed to let you know I have a parcel for you, delivered by DHL, thought it was safer with me than left outside your door"

"That sounds exciting, not sure who'd be sending me anything though"

"I'll help you up with these bags then go get it for you"

I thanked Dillon and set about unpacking my groceries, I had actually splurged out and bought some healthier micro meals, don't worry I had still stocked up on my favorite tasty cakes and ice cream. As I placed them in the fridge I noticed the remnants of carrots in the bottom tray and looked over to the counter above. Sadness swept over me as I remembered my favorite and most loyal little man. I'd woken up one day last week and couldn't get a response from him, he'd died in his sleep in his favorite place, his soup can. The clean and dismantled habitat still sat on the worktop.

Dillon knocked on the door and handed me a parcel, plain brown paper, no return address about a six inches square in size. My name and address had been printed onto the label. OK, do I open it or not? You might think this is a stupid question, but with the number of stalkers I've had, I really didn't know what to do. Obviously it had been sat at Dillon's and nothing had happened, and to be honest my curiosity was getting the better of me. So scissors and knife in hand I set the box on the middle of the table and stood over it, ready to attack. The knife I was holding hit the floor when the ringing of my phone shocked me. The Batman theme sang out into the silence of the apartment.

"Yo"

I had now somehow adopted the phone manners of Rangeman.

"Babe, you available for a job day after tomorrow?"

"Yeah, what are the details?"

"High level skip that we feel would be easier to capture through a distraction"

"OK, where and what time?"

"It's from a bar attached to the Estonia hotel, so probably best to go a little up market with the clothes. The guy is charged with kidnapping and rape so not a nice piece of work. I'll pick you up at 9 day after tomorrow, I'll leave a file at Rangeman for you to pick up"

Then he was gone, can't he ever say goodbye?

That conversation filed away, I returned to my package. I carefully cut away the outer brown paper to uncover an envelope with "Stephanie, open first" written on it, weird? I picked up the envelope and moved to sit down on the couch to read the contents in comfort. The envelope contained several pages of good quality paper with handwriting covering them. So I settled down to read it.

"My dearest Stephanie

May I first introduce myself to you. My name is Beatrice Lang and I am a 79-year-old woman, who is coming to the end of her life, sooner than I envisaged. I need to put my affairs in order and I have unfinished business that I will not be able to complete myself. My reason for contacting you is because of your determination and valor. You see I have followed your exploits over the years because I feel a connection to you through Edna, your Grandmother. Edna and I were truly best friends when we were children, even though it was only for a short time, and spent many happy hours together. We disconnected when my family moved away and alas it was only a few years ago that I even thought about her. Having no family of my own I felt a kinship to you, the granddaughter of my best friend."

Wow Grandma had never mentioned anyone called Beatrice; I wonder where they were living at the time? I tuned to the next page to continue.

" My parents were Hungarian and I was born there at a time preceding the oncoming conflicts involved with the Second World War. I was six years old when I came to America to start a new life. I have lived a healthy and fulfilling life and had been preparing for my eventual death when I came across the existence of some documents, my family had smuggled out from their homeland. As this knowledge had been kept with a firm of solicitors, a gentleman became aware of them and now I need to put right some wrongs. I cannot do it, but you can help. Peoples lives may depend on it"

I got up and fetched a beer from the fridge and finished reading the letter. I really didn't know what to think, do I believe who she is? That the information she has is of such great importance? And most importantly that people are in danger? This lady wanted me to almost follow a treasure trail starting in Washington. She had put in place an elaborate trail for me to follow, enabling pieces of information to be found that, as a whole would be vitally important. Hell it was 007 on epic proportions, even down to a lot of cash, false identity and papers that would enable me to travel incognito. I needed a plan of action. First I needed to keep this box and letter somewhere safe, and then there was a subtle conversation I needed to have with Grandma. Deciding that nowhere was really safe inside my apartment, well not if there was a fire, I opened the door of the cleaning cupboard situated opposite the lift. Dillon used this as an emergency supply cupboard, mostly to clean up after any disasters with my apartment, you know cleaning blood stains up, getting rid of graffiti and putting out fires, so I put my box inside a shoe box and placed it at the back of a shelf in the corner. That done I decided to go early to my parents to mooch dinner. As I pulled up to the house at 5.30 no one was stood on the doorstep, strange there was always someone who seemed to know I was coming, so I parked and walked through to the kitchen where my mother was busy preparing dinner.

"Stephanie I didn't expect you, why are you here so early, nothing wrong is there?"

"No mum, just had some time to spare so thought I'd catch up, is Grandma here?"

"Yes, she's arguing with your father in the front room over a TV program she wants to watch"

I wondered into the lounge to find my Grandmother sat looking daggers at my father, and him ignoring her, fixated on a ball game.

"Hi folks"

"Hello Pumpkin"

That was as much as I was going to get from him.

"Baby Granddaughter, it's nice to see you, how's it going?"

"Good Grandma, I'm gonna take advantage of the sunshine and sit on the front doorstep, fancy a gossip?"

That was the magic word for my Grandmother; she got up picking up her mug of coffee and followed me out to sit on the step.

"So what shakes?"

"Nothing much Grandma had a really quiet week"

"Yeah same here, not a lot of gossip going around, everyone seems too happy. Fiona Hopeful is getting married; remember her, she was a year below you at school. Seems the wedding dress will need to be a few sizes bigger on the waist, if you know what I mean?"

"I remember her, not really a friend or anything"

OK now to move this conversation to where I wanted it to go.

"I mean Mary Lou and I were the bestest of friends, we did everything together. Did you have a best friend like that when you were little?"

"Well I suppose there were a few, most of them dead now, but there was one special friend for a short time, but I don't know what happened to her"  
"Oh, who was that, maybe I know of her?"

"Nah, she was called Beatty. We got on well because we were both Hungarian; she was such a pretty girl and so much fun. In fact I think somewhere along the way we may have been related, you know cousins or something"

"So what happened to her?"

"Don't know, the family just up and left real quiet, without anyone really knowing"

"So did you have a friend like I have Mary Lou?"

"Well yes, Gladys and I stayed together right through to when she died, though she passed away before your Grandfather did. I could always talk to her about anything and she was real good with secrets"

"Yeah, it doesn't matter how often I see Lou I can always pick right up with her"

My Grandmother shifted on the step and seemed to be peering down the street.

"Steph you see that car parked down there, is it one of your bounty hunter friends?"

I looked over and down the road and as Grandma had said there was a dark grey SUV with fully tinted windows, so no way to see who was inside.

"Stephanie, Mum, dinners on the table"

I was saved from answering by my mothers summons to sit at the table.

Conversation around the table was pleasant and we talked about goings on in the Burg. My mother never once mentioned my job or expressed concern over my single status, now that was just weird.

After my meal I left with a bag full of boxes of lasagna and chocolate cake, they'd probably be better in the freezer, well the lasagne would, as I had enough meals that I'd bought this afternoon. The cake though I could always eat anytime. I drove slowly back to my apartment keeping an eye in the rear view mirror and was relieved that the grey car didn't appear. Back home I locked up making sure the windows in the bedroom were closed then dressed in my PJs, I sat on the bed and with a pen and paper made a list of what I needed to do if I were to follow Beatrice's plea for help.

Buy clothes and accessories for disguise

Figure out transport to get to Washington

Rope Mary Lou in for a diversion

Get help from Sally

Write letters to people

By the time my eyes were about to drop I had the bus schedule from Trenton to Washington, I couldn't plan any further because until I picked up my next set of clues from the left luggage locker at the bus station in Washington, I didn't know where I was going to next. I had a list of things to buy from the mall so I sent Mary Lou a text asking if she fancied doing some shopping in the morning. I guess I'd made up my mind to help Beatrice.

The next morning I was up, dressed and parked outside of Mary Lou's by 9am. An absolute record for me but for some reason I was feeling a buzz about this mission of mine. Whilst in the car I steeled myself for what I was going to be asking of Mary Lou.

"Lou, you know how we are best friends and I would do anything for you?"

She turned and looked at me with a grin on her face.

"What you want Steph?"

"Well I have to leave town for a few days"

"So how does that involve me?"  
"I need to do it on the low down"

"What, so no one knows you're going?"

"Yeah and no one will know where I'm going"

"Steph are you in trouble, is someone after you?"  
"No nothing like that. An old friend has asked a favor and I don't want people poking their noses in"

"So who do mean?"

"Well I don't want my family to know"  
"What about Joe?"  
"Definitely not Joe"  
Joe Morelli, what can I say. He was hot and hunkie with the best ass in Trenton. Joe and I had a history, and not really a good one. You see he fondled me when I was six years old in his fathers' garage, and then he talked my pants off me when I was sixteen on the floor of the Tasty Pastry. The more I think of our relationship the more it feels very unhealthy. He wants me to marry him, give up working and stay at home as a mum, cooking and cleaning. The thing is I think I love him, but not enough. Joe and I were at a sort of impasse, we hadn't had an argument, but we hadn't exactly spoken to each other either and I was really feeling OK about that.

"So you and Joe?"

"Nothing happening, good or bad, he texts me and I reply. He's busy and so am I"

"OK, what about Ranger?"

"No, I don't want him to get involved with this"

"So how 's that gonna work?"

"That's where you come in"

I described the disguise I wanted and that we were going to the mall to buy the things I would need to make it work, and my plans for asking Sally Sweep to help, come on he is the master of costumes and has a real flair for hair. When we got to the mall I could only find parking half way across the car park, we got out of the car then Mary Lou looped her arm through mine and we headed for the entrance. To be sure no one suspected me of buying such a weird combination of accessories, I gave Mary Lou some of the cash that had been in the box from Beatrice, and after making a choice asked her to make the purchases. After two hours we were sat in the food court, bags at our feet, making good on the plethora of fried goods from Taco Bell.

"Hell Steph that's the most fun I've had for ages"

"It was wasn't it, wait till we get to put it all together"

"So how we doing that?"

"Well, tomorrow I have a distraction to do for Rangeman so Wednesday night I want to put my plan into action, that OK with you?"

"So where do I fit in?"

"You are going to dress up in some baggy clothes and put the wig on. Then Sally will pick you up from your house and come over to my apartment. He'll work his magic and I'll leave with him, dressed so I look like the person he arrived with, and then you can leave and get Lenny to pick you up at the front door"

"Shit, you have got it all worked out, haven't you?"

"Sure have, and if I post the letters in the afternoon they'll reach the people I need them to get to by the following morning, oh and I'm sending one to you so it looks as though you have no idea what's gone on"

"Will you keep in touch so I know you're OK?"

"I'll try, but I'm not sure how yet"

By now we'd reached the outskirts to the Burg and I had to do a double take, there sat two cars behind me, was that grey SUV. I hadn't noticed it at the mall so who and how were they following me? By the time I dropped Mary Lou off I was a jumble of nerves so decided to hit the bonds office before it shut. I parked out front and could see Connie sat at her desk.

"Hey Connie, any files for me?"

"Hey white girl was expecting you this morning, where you bin?"

"Oh hi Lula, I was catching up with Mary Lou"

"Steph there's only one file, low bond, so shouldn't be hard to bring in"  
"Thanks Connie, so do you two fancy a drink out tonight?"

"I'm in, ain't got nothing doing"

"Connie?"

"Yeah I'm in, I'm hearing good things about that new bar "Sunrise" you fancy there?"

"Sounds good to me, Lula you game?"

"Sure am"

Connie was going to get another friend to come with us, which was a good idea because she didn't tend to drink alcohol and would be the designated driver for all of us. I picked up my file and headed back home. Two hours to get ready was enough time even for me. When back at my apartment building I drove around the block to enter the car park from a different route, not sure why I did that, but realized when my spidey senses started going off that it was because that dam grey car was there. I took note of the plates and stalked into the building. Once inside I picked up my phone and hit speed dial 1.

"Yo"

"Yeah you as well"

"Sounding a bit miffed, what's up?"

I could almost hear his smile in that, but I wasn't feeling magnanimous with my response.

"Have you got someone shadowing me?"

"No, give me the details"

Now he went serious, so I gave him a description of the car, plate details and where I'd seen it.

"Err Ranger, I'm out with the girls tonight, Connie's friend is driving us all, so I'll let you know if anything happens"

"Babe you think he's stalking you?"

"Don't get that kind of feeling"

"I'm available if you need me, be safe"

OK I felt a little easier that Ranger was now aware, but uneasy because I didn't know who was following me. I decided to eat first before getting ready, so chose a ready meal, and then showered and washed my hair. With anti frizz gel in, I finger combed it and decided to let it dry naturally while I dressed and put my makeup on. Now that I was going out, I wasn't looking forward to it, so went for a more natural look, and not a pick up look. Hipster jeans and halter-top completed the outfit along with ankle boots and a short leather jacket. As I reached the lobby a car holding Connie and Lula came to a stop for me to get in the back seat, was that good planning or what? The bar was about a fifteen-minute drive and from the looks of the car park it seemed pretty empty, unless everyone else got taxis to go out? Lula was dressed to literally kill, and that was her attitude when she realized the lack of other patrons inside. We found a table and after ordering a pitcher of margarita settled into a steady conversation. An hour later the place livened up and we joined other women on the dance floor. Not too many lone men about, but to be honest I wasn't bothered by that. Lula, or maybe I should say her short bright pink skirt and matching top, attracted a tall blond guy and she spent the evening dancing with him. By 1am we'd danced ourselves out, I was hot, sweaty and tired so gave no argument to going home. Lula stayed on with her new man, though he never came up to talk with us at all. I was dropped off first and as I was about to close the car door when Connie motioned to me.

"Steph I brought this with me, only came in after you left this afternoon, Eula needs bringing in again. Call me when you have her at the station"

Even though I wasn't looking forward to going out I'd had a good time and was suitably relaxed. With a buzz in my head, I fell into bed and fell straight to sleep.

It wasn't my head or the taste at the top of my mouth that woke me, it was a smell, and once my brain connected, I followed my nose out of the bedroom into the kitchen. I'm not sure what I appreciated the most, the smell of McDonalds fries with a coke, or the sight of Ranger leaning with his back against my kitchen counter.

"You are a life savior"

"Good to know I'm appreciated"

"How did you know I would need the cure?"

"Sorry Babe, but I had a shadow on you last night, I got worried if you were at a bar you might not be at your best"

"S'okay"

All right he did a double take at that, because I don't like it when I have a shadow, but to be honest I hadn't noticed who it was, and I didn't see the grey car. Was I even capable by the end of the night?

"One for the books then. I brought you that file to look through"

By now I had eaten my fries and was feeling a little more compos mentis and was leaning over the sink washing the grease of my hands, when I felt Ranger behind me. He leaned into me with his front to my back and wrapped his arms around my waist. With his face next to my cheek he kissed the lobe of my ear and moved down to the junction of my neck and shoulder. I shivered involuntarily and closed my eyes. God that felt good, too good.

"You going to be OK Babe?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Just concerned"

He moved away from me, leaving me feeling bereft of his touch. I turned and moved to the side to pick up my coke, I needed a distraction before I allowed anything else to happen. I think he noticed my maneuver because he stepped away and moved toward the door.

"Later Babe"

Then he was gone. My heart returned to normal and my breathing slowed, I didn't know how I was going to continue with having him in such close proximity. Now that I was awake, I dressed in jeans and T-shirt with a loose cotton blouse over, checked my bag for cuffs, pepper spray and picking up my keys and the files from Connie went out to collect some skips. Collecting Eula from the bus station fell right into line with my plans. I approached the ticket office and bought an open ticket for Washington, using cash, then went to buy a sandwich and coffee to persuade Eula to come with me. I found an empty luggage locker and after putting her things in gave her the key. One down, one to go. The police station was quiet and I'd phoned Connie on my way there to meet us, so was chatting with Carl as I waited.

"Hey Steph, long time no see. How are things going?"

"Hi Carl, going good. Getting my skips in and I haven't had any problems recently"

"Pleased to see, Steph, 'cos Morelli is whining because you're doing a good job"

"Can't seem to win with him, Oh Connie's here, see you later"

I gave Connie my receipt and headed out of the door straight to my car; once the engine was turning over I drove round the corner and to the rear parking area of a McDonalds. No I didn't want anything to eat, but I needed a bit of quiet time to look at the next file, and to be honest I didn't want to bump into Morelli. I opened the file, but didn't look at it, what was Morelli up to? Did he think if I got into scrapes with my skips I would give up, like he wanted me to? Well that was not gonna happen. My next skip was only nineteen, he worked at a local leisure center and had been arrested for being drunk in a public area, and stupid enough to be abusive to the arresting police officer. I phoned up the leisure center to discover he finished his shift in forty minutes, so starting the car I drove to park outside the center. I waited outside the employees exit and out came Darren Fips. He was short and thin wearing a red tracksuit, he didn't even look nineteen, hell, was he even shaving? As he stepped out, I feigned bumping into him and went down on one knee, at least he had some manners because he turned toward me and apologized.

"Oh sorry, didn't see you there"

"Darren Fips?"

"Err yes"

"My name is Stephanie Plum and I work for Plum Bail Bonds, you missed your court date so I need for you to accompany me so we can reschedule it"

As I said this I stepped forward and snapped a cuff onto his right wrist, the left cuff was fastened to my left wrist. He tried to pull away but bless him; he just didn't have the weight to even jolt me.

"I'm sorry I forgot"

"No problem, come on we'll go get it sorted out"

Thirty minutes later and I was back at the office handing over another receipt and a box containing pizza.

"No Lula this morning?"

"She phoned in, too tired to come in"

Connie laughed as she raised her fingers to hyphenate "too tired" We finished off our pizza and I got up ready to leave.

"Oh well good luck to her, I'm off, I have a distraction tonight so need to go get ready"

Outside the sun was bright and I stopped to get my sunglasses out, I looked in the office window to look at my reflection, and I caught sight of a grey SUV pulling out of a parking space opposite. I started up my car and quickly pulled out, going in the opposite direction, and heading for home. The skip for tonight was not a nice man, according to both his file and his photo; I was going to struggle to play up to this one as a potential pick up. Maybe a different line was needed. I showered, waxed, buffed and moisturized before part drying my hair and putting heated rollers in. My makeup was going to be very feminine with soft curls around my face. I ate a meal before getting dressed. I wore a light blue dress with a cross over top and three quarter sleeves. There was some cleavage but not slutty. The dress hugged my hips and came to just above my knees. There was a slit at the front to enable walking. White low heeled, pointed toe shoes, a white clutch bag and a white linen jacket completed the outfit. As I loaded up my bag I heard the locks on the door tumble and felt Rangers energy as he entered the apartment.

"I'm ready"

He was stood by the door looking at me with a quizzical look on his face, in his black cargos, black T-shirt and dressed as a badass. God I was getting turned on just looking at him, I responded to his look.

"I know what I'm doing"

"All right"

"That's it?"

"Yes, I trust your judgment"

"Oh"

He approached me and pulled out a small box from his cargo pocket; opening it to reveal the wire I would need to wear. I took it from his hand, turned round and taped it to the underside of my right breast inside my bra. When I turned back Ranger had his blank face firmly in place. I could only whisper.

"I'm sorry but, if I, you…"

I couldn't say what I felt, I couldn't let him know. Ranger must have used some sort of ESP because he just walked up to me and with his arms around me, held me.

"It's OK Babe"

As we approached the hotel Ranger stopped his Porsche a block away for me to get out, this way no one would associate me as being with company.

"Go get 'em tiger"

I switched on the wire and started to walk on the pavement then crossed the entrance of the hotel car park. Ranger wanted me to bring the skip out of the side entrance into there. As I looked into the car park I saw it parked in the corner.

"Shit, shit, shit. Grey SUV parked in the corner of the car park"

There was a flash from a cars headlight to acknowledge a Rangeman had heard me and understood, as least I hoped that was the message for me.

The bar was dimly lit, with people sat at tables or stood against the bar. I walked up to the bar and slid up onto a bar seat, then crossing my legs I gave attention to a non-existent mark on my shoe. As I sat back up, my eyes roamed the room. I spied Bobby at a table reading a newspaper, Hal at the other end of the bar and Manny sat at a window seat by the entrance. My skip, oh did I say his name was Tobias Salvatore, was also sat on a bar stool two empty seats over; he was not a very nice looking man. His pale skin was pot marked, his eyes were sunken and had a washed out grey look and his lips were narrow. He was in deep conversation with the barmaid, who also didn't seem to like him. When she saw me she excused herself to come over to serve me, I smiled at Tobias, as if wishing to acknowledge that I had disturbed his conversation, and ordered a cosmopolitan with lots of ice, that way I could pretend to sip my drink through the ice. A minute later and Tobias was sat in the seat next to me.

"Nice hotel, you staying here?"

"Oh no I've been here for a meeting so thought I'd get a drink before heading out"

"So what's your name, I'm Sal"

"Nice to meet you Sal, I'm Micelle"

"Maybe we could have lunch here and then we could finish with a night cap?"

"Not sure on that, I've been stuck in this building for a business meeting nearly all afternoon"

"What line of work are you in?"

I used the good old faithful turn on.

"I'm a lingerie designer and seller"

"Really, that sounds very interesting, so how about that meal?"

He was edging off the seat, leaning across with one hand on the back of my bar stool, I was beginning to feel a little trapped. Not what I wanted, I needed him out of the place not to get stuck in here with him.

"I know a much better place for a romantic meal"

"Oh, that sounds promising"

His hand then moved from the bar stool and he started to play with my hair at the back of my neck, I suppressed the shudder that moved through me. At that very moment Morelli walked into the bar, fortunately he was heading toward a table at the far side and didn't see me. I turned to the bar to take a sip of my drink, dislodging the creeps' hand from my neck in the process, and whispered into the wire.

"Morelli just walked in!"

"You OK sweetheart?"

"Sorry. Tell you what, my car's in the car park, and this place is getting a bit busy, why don't we split?"

I desperately needed to get out of here before Morelli blew my cover. Just as I got down from my stool Morelli looked up and locked onto me. I literally grabbed Sal by the hand and pulled him toward the side door. Bless Bobby, because he stood up and went face to face with Morelli, stopping him from moving forward. Sal didn't seem to notice, he had a grin on his face as though it was his birthday. I stepped out into the cooler evening air and made to continue walking to a car. The sweet sound of Tanks voice came from behind me.

"Tobias Salvatore you are in violation of your bond agreement and we are here to assist you back into the system"

I turned and continued to back away with a look of shock on my face, I needed to look as though I wasn't involved in the take down, I didn't want any skips to come back at me. As Tobias Salvatore was turned around with cuffs on, I felt Ranger come behind me and turn me into his arms. I don't know why but I felt edgy, I was shaking slightly and my eyes were darting around. Ranger seemed aware that I was agitated and led me to his Porsche to help me inside. As he closed the door I saw Morelli come barging out of the side exit door and walk up to Ranger. Sorry, but my curiosity got the better of me, I cracked the door open in order to listen in on their conversation.

"What the hell are doing Manoso?"

"Carrying out an apprehension, Morelli"

"Why is Steph in the middle of it?"

"Because she works for Rangeman"

"Are you mad, she's likely to get someone hurt or hurt herself?"

"No Morelli, this is a planned take down with plenty of backup, and it was posted with the Chief as always, you are the one who is endangering people"

Interesting I wonder if Morelli knew and came into this bar on purpose? Ranger spoke with Tank and Lester then came over to the car. He reclosed my door then folded himself into the drivers' side and motored out of the car park with Morelli looking on. I was quiet on the way back, looking out of the side window, when we pulled to a stop I jerked with the shock; I went to open the door but was stopped by Ranger holding onto my arm. He pointed to my breast and I acknowledged by turning the wire off and then removing it and handing it to Ranger. He then got out of the car and before I realized it he had opened my door and was helping me out. Once he'd cleared my flat he walked me up to the couch and sat me down. Squatting in front of me he raised my chin to look into my eyes.

"Babe what's wrong?"

"Not sure"

"You did an amazing job tonight, proud of you"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Did Morelli go there on purpose?"

"I don't know, do you think he did?"

Again I shrugged my shoulders.

"Babe, are you two back together?"

"Not really, we haven't spoken for a while, which is fine by me"

"Babe I had Santos have a little talk to the man in the grey SUV"

That had my attention.

"And?"

"His credentials check him out as a journalist, he said he wanted to get an inside story about the "Bombshell Bounty Hunter" so thought if he followed you he'd get a scoop. Santos gave him a nice little talking to, so you shouldn't see him again"

"Please don't tell me Lester threatened to make him disappear?"  
Ranger smiled.

"That what you want?"

"NO"

"Then no, Santos explained to Mr. Grossman how he was endangering you and others and that our solicitor was ready to press charges of stalking against him"

"So he'll leave me alone?"

"Yes, does that make you feel better?"

I nodded my head.

"Good, now go get changed while I run you a bath"

I heard the water running in the bathroom and stripped off my clothes pulling on a dressing gown, by the time I walked in, the bath was full and the air was filled with the fragrance of vanilla. Ranger pulled my gown down over my shoulders and I climbed into the bath; I sank into the hot water until only my face was above the bubbles. Ranger knelt by the tub and gently moved a curl from my face to behind my ear, and then holding me by the side of my head bent down and kissed my forehead.

"You don't need to stay, I'll be fine"

"I'll stay as long as I feel you need me"

In the warmth of the bath my body relaxed and I felt myself drifting. Ranger was gently moving a sponge over my arms and legs. There was absolutely nothing erotic about his actions, it was caring and soothing. As the water began to cool he lifted me out and wrapped a towel around my body, and one around my hair, then placed my robe on top, tying the belt on my waist. He sat me on the edge of the bed, then sat behind me with his legs either side of me and dried and combed my hair, then pulled it back. By the time I laid down on the bed I was asleep.

Sunshine through the curtain drew me awake, at first I couldn't remember how I'd got here, a quick look under the covers showed that I had one of Rangers T-shirts on and some sleep shorts. A note on the pillow in Rangers script made me blush at the intimate way he had cared for me.

"Babe, I hoped you slept well and feel more settled, call if you need anything. I'll catch up with you. R"

When I went into the bathroom the bath had been cleaned, the towels were drying, I could still smell the scent of vanilla in the air. On looking in the mirror I expected a rats nest for hair but was surprised to find my hair braided from my forehead and back into the nape of my neck. I must have been very still while sleeping because it looked almost perfect. What was it with Ranger last night, he didn't try to kiss me, he just made sure I was okay by caring for me. That made tears swell into my eyes, I had to stop reading too much into what he did for me, he was one of my best friends and I couldn't do anything stupid to spoil that, like showing how much I cared for him, no loved him. It was mid morning by the time I ventured out and took the opportunity to call in at the office to get my cheques for the latest skips, bearing the gift of doughnuts of course.

"White girl you's look real pretty with your hair done like that'

"Thanks Lula, How's it going with your new man?"  
"Ain't seen him, he said he was busy working last night so I'm a waiting"

"Sounds good then, Connie, here are the receipts from yesterday, anything new?"

"No you're all up to date, Vinnie is in the city with Lucille so all's quiet here"

I spent time eating doughnuts and drinking coffee and generally nattering. Tank came in with a receipt, probably from last night.

"Morning ladies, Connie, receipt for Salvatore, mail it to Rangeman please. Anything for us?"

"No Tank, all quiet"

"OK, I'll call later in the week"

With that he was gone. I left soon after feigning laundry and cleaning as my main items on the agenda and was back home by 2pm. I now needed to prepare for tonight.

I spent over an hour writing out the letters for my parents, Joe, Connie, Mary Lou and Ranger. Placing them in envelopes I addressed them, then popped over to the corner shop, bought stamps and posted them. That job done I returned and packed a rucksack with some clothes. I retrieved the box from the cleaning cupboard and moved the cash, id, a key and my tickets into a zipped pocket inside. There was also my gun, yes I'd loaded it, and shoulder holster with spare clips, and these I shoved into the bottom below any clothes. Next a shower and with my dressing gown on, I ate a meal and sat watching TV. At 6.30 Sally and Mary Lou arrived, giggling and laughing as they came through the door.

"She's been frigging great, wearing the wig n all"

"Lou, you look really different, maybe a new image?"

"Don't think so, Lenny nearly had a fit when he saw it, he likes my hair long"

She removed the baggy cargos and hoodie to reveal jeans and T-shirt, then started to empty her rucksack.

"You ready girl? You are going to looking frigging magic, even your own mother won't recognize you"

Sally spent nearly two hours on my hair; he braided it so that it was tight to my scalp.

"Don't mess with these, just wash your hair with them in, but put this gel on to stop it from drying and knotting"

My makeup was simple; as I didn't know how much time I would have to re apply it and to be honest the picture showed only kohl and mascara, I could cope with that. Next the wig, a black bob, with a straight fringe, the front longer than at the back, that now fit snugly over the braids. The photo in the id showed body piercing, yuck, in my nose, on my eyebrows and up the lobes of my ears. The rings we'd bought looked really effective, and they seemed to stay in place well, using a spring to stay on. Fake tattoos went on my arms, at the top of my back and one between my breasts. Finally clothing, I was going for gothic so had bought a long black calf length skirt, flat cat boots and a black strappy top. The last pieces of the puzzle were the brown contacts. Sally turned me toward the mirror. Holy shit!

"Girl you look like a hot and totally badass Goth"

"Thanks Sally, Lou does it look like the photo on the id?"

"Christ Steph it's amazing, no one would recognize you"

"You got to strut girl, to go with the clothes, get the frigging attitude and you've got it kicked"

It was now 9.30pm, and it was time to go. Wearing a short black leather jacket, I picked up my rucksack and took a last look around the apartment; any wrappers from the makeover were now in Mary Lou's bag, ready to be dropped into a skip on her way home. My bag was on the bed with my phone and any trackers in there. Cuffs and pepper spray were stowed with the gun in my rucksack. Once I was sure everything was tidy and evidence free I locked the door and put the keys in the shoebox in the cleaning cupboard, including my Rangeman key fob. I had put on the baggy cargos and hoodie that Mary Lou had worn when she came in, it was dark outside so hopefully anyone would think I was the same person going out with Sally. I got into the car that Sally was driving and we headed into town. Mary Lou was to walk out of the front lobby door and be picked up by Lenny, acting as though she lived there. Phase one was over, now onto phase two, and pray I got away with it.

Chapter 2

I awoke at 5 and dressed for the gym and a morning workout. My time had been non-stop meetings this week and I was hoping for time to catch up with reports, some paperwork and even try to check in on Steph. I pushed myself on each aspect of my routine and then to really burn off excess energy sparred with some of the new guys on the mats. I wasn't overly pleased with a couple of them and needed to confer with the core team on that. My morning had run pretty much to schedule and I had an hour before a core group meeting. Why did I have to jinx it? Because the shit was about to hit.

The telephone went showing it was Manny in reception.

"Ranger I have two FBI agents who say it's important that they see you, I've checked and their ids are good"

"Have them escorted up to my office"

Two men were brought in, escorted by Manny, he still liked to intimidate the likes of FBI agents, and judging by their faces he'd succeeded.

"Gentlemen?"

"Mr. Manoso, I'm Agent Langley, FBI and this is Agent Mosely, FBI, we have some important information to share with you and are hoping that you can support our efforts"

Yeah right, they had bits of information and wanted us to do their dirty work.

"Take a seat"

Langley had a confidence about him and as an older agent he seemed more at ease. He was perhaps in his late forties, with sandy coloured hair cut short, but showing splashes of grey. His suit was cheap but fit him well and he was well presented. The other was a different breed, I wasn't sure about him and my instinct was to not trust him. He was tall, blond, with blue/grey eyes and with a skin tone that showed he had been in the sun. He was perhaps mid thirties and had an expensive, impeccable suit. It seemed Langley was going to be the spokes person.

"We have been led to understand, from confidential informants and evidence from certain activities in and around Trenton, that we have a radical group establishing themselves here in town"

"Go on"

Mosely took up the challenge.

"Well, we would expect you to use your influence and contacts and help to verify this, then provide us with information on what they are up to"

I raised an eyebrow at his arrogant speech.

"Why would I do that?"

Yeah that threw them, I continued.

"As a company we do take on contracts from the FBI, you come back with a contract that we may deem acceptable and I'll talk with you again, gentlemen, I'm busy so the ball is in your court"

I stood up and opened the door and nodded to Manny to escort them off the premises. I was not impressed and showed my annoyance as I walked into Tanks office for the core group meeting; Santos and Bobby were already there.

"Ranger, what got you in a mood?"

"Dam FBI agents, demanding we provide services with no contract"

"Anything we already know about, Primo?"

"No, some new radical group in the area?"

I looked at Tank for some answer.

"Nah, not come into our radar. So why else did you call this meeting?"

"Bobby what do you think of the new recruits we have?"

"All right, a couple have potential a third I think is just lazy, Santos how are they working with you?"

"Same two are possibles, they have the intelligence and stamina, but at the moment they aren't controlled enough for our line of work. Maybe with some one on one and shadowing they'd learn the ropes. One I'm not sure about, might be better with the security side, where there isn't the same need for being as physical, but I think we need to do a review with them and give them some targets to achieve before their probation period ends"

"So what you're saying is Collins is lazy, Hickman and Sandor are possibles, all need more training?

Tank crossed his arms and sat back in his chair.

"Sounds about right, how do we move this forward?"

At that moment Manny knocked on the door and entered, he obviously wasn't happy to interrupt us but as we'd turned our phones off to have some privacy, it couldn't be helped.

"I'm sorry Ranger but I've got Morelli down in reception, shouting and demanding to see you, he won't leave and threatened us with a search warrant"

I got up from my chair and walked to the door.

"Tank come up with a plan for those three, Manny put Morelli in conference room 1 with full audio and video, oh and make sure he signs in and relinquishes his weapon."

I turned my phone back on, no missed calls or texts, and slowly walked down the stairs to the conference room behind reception. Morelli was already in the room pacing and almost growling with anger. I stood at the doorway waiting for him to become aware of his surroundings. He suddenly turned toward me and strode to within a foot of me, he was radiating with anger.

"Where the hell is she?"

"Who?"

"Who the fuck do you think I mean?"

"Morelli you're going to have to come up with more information"

"Steph, where have you sent her?"

Now I was totally confused.  
"I haven't seen her since the night you nearly interrupted our takedown"

"Well you must have, why would she say she's working out of town if it wasn't for you?"

"Morelli I still don't know anything, when did you last speak with her?"

"I haven't, I got this letter this morning"

He threw a letter on the table then sat down. I sat and picked up the letter to read, I looked at Morelli to ensure he meant for me to read it, he nodded his head.

"Dear Joe

Although I've not really seen you for a while I thought it best to let you know I'll be out of town for a few days working on a job. No need to worry I'm fine.

Stephanie"

Short and sweet and from the context of this letter she didn't see herself as being with Morelli, interesting.

"I have no idea about this, I'm as much in the dark as you"

"Shit, I'll need to go see her parents"

"Morelli if you do that, be very sure you don't present this as anything other than she's left town"

"That a threat Manoso?"

"No just a caution, don't blow this out of proportion"

He flung the door open and came to a stop in front of Manny, Manny was having a good morning and nodded at me indicating he'd escort Morelli out. I returned to five and going into the monitoring area asked Binkie to call up Stephs trackers, they were all sat in her apartment, with her car in the parking lot. I returned to Tanks office where he was alone working.

"What's Morelli griping at?"

"Steph has sent a letter to Morelli telling him she's out of town on a job. Send Santos to check out Stephs flat will you, then give Connie a phone"

"Ah shit you think she went willingly?"

"Don't know. Lets get some info first"

I returned to my office sitting down with my head resting on the back of the chair. She'd been out of sorts after the distraction, but I thought I'd left her settled and relaxed? I opened my eyes and looked down. There sat on my desk rested an envelope, Stephanie's writing, I leaned forward to pick it up, I didn't have a good feeling about this.

"Dear Ranger

Than you for taking care of me the other evening, for some reason I felt really off, but you knew exactly what I needed.

I am going out of town for a few days, a bit of a quest to help a friend. I suppose I could quote you for once, not business, but in the wind, definitely no coup envisaged, but travelling incognito. I will be careful and if I need your help I will try to get a message to you.

Love Steph"

Babe what are you getting yourself into? Nothing has ever been straight forward with her, Steph's open and trusting nature makes her vulnerable, but I suppose her strength and determination makes her formidable. I sat up and sent a text to Morelli

"I have same letter"

I wasn't going to show him the letter Steph had sent to me, I wanted to savior the different and more affectionate way that she had written it, because dam it, I would have been jealous had his letter shown more affection. The door opened and Santos and Tank both came in, both with serious expressions. I gave the letter to Tank and looked at Santos.

"Absolutely clean, no evidence of a break in or damage. Her trackers, cards and phone were in her bag on the bed and I found her keys in a cupboard next door. I spoke with the neighbors and Dillon, they haven't seen anything"

Tank handed the letter to Santos.

"I spoke with Connie and Mary Lou, they've received similar letters, also one sent to her parents, obviously Morelli and now you. She covered her bases. No cash withdrawals, trackers and phone left behind. Ranger she knows how this can be done, I don't think we'll find her unless she wants to be found"

"Primo, I don't think she'll be gone long and maybe it's what she says, she's helping out a friend?"

"Yeah but I remember the last few times she's gone off to help someone out"

They both nodded at me, we didn't need to mention the name Abruzzi that resulted from her trying to help a neighbor find her granddaughter or the trouble when her uncle disappeared. Trouble just seemed to find her.

"Tank ask around and see if there's anything that would say how she left town"

"Yeah, on it boss"


	2. Chapter 3 & 4

Chapter 3

I had travelled with Sally to his house to spend a few hours before he took me close to the bus stop where I could catch a bus to the bus station. His housemate was away, so there was no one to scrutinize the strange woman that he had brought home. I'd planned on boarding a bus that would arrive in Washington at about 11am that meant leaving the house at 7am. God I was tired, but there was no way could I even dose, I was a bag of nerves. The bus was packed which was good and I soon settled myself midway, against the window, it was actually entertaining how people looked at me and avoided me. I pulled up my hoodie to cover my face, wrapped my rucksack against my chest and pulling my knees up did manage to get some sleep. It was warm and quiet with few stops and I knew that where I was going was the last stop. As I exited the bus at the station in Washington I stood looking around for the exit sign then made my way through the ticket barrier, there seemed to be more police on duty here, maybe because of terrorist threats. As I came into the grand entrance I caught sight of the baggage lockers. I went to buy a coffee, sat down and watched the area around me as I drank, just to be sure there wasn't anyone obviously watching me. With the key in my hand I walked over and opened the locker that corresponded to the key, inside I found another small box similarly wrapped to the previous one, but with no name on it, attached to the outside was a plain sealed envelope. I put the box and envelope straight into my rucksack, closed it up, and put it across my chest so I was holding onto it. OK that seemed to go well, now to find somewhere private to sit and read the letter and look inside the box. I walked straight out of the station and on the other side of two major roads was Lower Senate Park, an ideal place to sit in view but in private. Walking down the street I stopped at the lights, then as the traffic came to a stop I walked across the roads. The noise from all the traffic was certainly louder than I was used to, and at one point there seemed to be cars coming from every direction. Walking quickly I crossed over to the park and found a bench underneath a large oak tree. As I brought the envelope out I realized I was shaking slightly, god what I wouldn't give to have Ranger by my side, I breathed in through my mouth and out of my nose and when I felt calm I opened the letter to read it.

"My dearest Stephanie if you are reading this letter then I am so proud of you. You have placed your trust in me and now I will place my trust in you. You are to be the courier of my important documents and that is your only job. I know that you will accomplish this. In the box there is the copy of a reservation for a hotel room where you can rest and look further at the route that I am sending you on. Trust no one, they are not whom they appear to be. The hotel is the Kimpton George Hotel, 15 E St NW, Washington, DC. Take a taxi to get there, but first remove some of your disguise so they won't remember you.

I'll be with you in spirit

Beatrice"

I put the letter and box back inside the rucksack and looked around trying to figure out how to lose some of my disguise, there were some public toilets ahead so with my hood back up over my head, I went inside a cubicle, I was pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness. I removed all of my facial jewelry, hell that felt better, they'd really begun to irritate where they were pushed on. Next the wig came off, again a sigh of relief to get some fresh air to my scalp, though the look of the braids seemed strange, the eye lenses were last. I then removed a blue shawl from inside my bag; I'd put it in last minute in case I got cold. Much better, with the hoodie back on I strolled out of the toilets and made my way to the edge of the park, as I walked I removed the hoodie and adjusted the shawl around my shoulders, giving myself a much more normal appearance. I found a taxi rank outside the park entrance, the driver tried to chat and I was polite, and fortunately the hotel wasn't far. Once inside a young receptionist exchanged my booking sheet for a keycard and I was able to finally close the door behind me. I leaned against the door and surveyed my surroundings; the room was spacious with a seating area, a desk and chair, and a bed that was calling my name. I used the bathroom and eyed up the bath remembering the way Ranger had helped me to relax, I really missed being able to talk with him. I decided to investigate the box and see where Beatrice was sending me to next. I re-read the letter and took out the contents of the box. There was a plane ticket heading for New Orleans, wow first class and another id. The picture was similar to the first but not quite so outrageous. I still had the short, black hair and brown eyes, but no body piercings. The ticket and id had the name Erényes Barak born in Philadelphia who worked as a freelance artist. Well I hoped no one asked me to paint anything, though I was good when it came to design, especially since I once helped out in the studio for E E Martin. There was another letter with the flight information detailing what I was to do in New Orleans and the name of a hotel I had reservations for. I would need to be at the airport for 8 am to board at 9, and then endure a three-hour flight. It was only early afternoon but I didn't want to risk going outside, so I undressed and lay on the bed with the intention of thinking, OK you guessed, I fell asleep. By early evening I had showered, struggling to only add shampoo to the braids in my hair, I'm not sure how long I would keep these in for. I wore the hotel robe from the bathroom and perused the room service menu. Yes room service was definitely at the top of my list, and they had an amazing choice. I ordered lasagna with garlic bread, tiramisu and a half bottle of wine, I was going to enjoy my wondrous meal and settle in front of the TV. While waiting for room service I applied the lotion Sally had given to me for my hair and I must admit it did make it feel softer. When there was a knock at the door I nearly jumped, room service? I looked through the peephole and spied a young man pushing a cart. I opened the door letting him into the room; I gave him a few dollars tip then settled down for the night.

Chapter 4

I awoke at a little past five, not by the alarm but from my brain over thinking. I was becoming increasingly concerned for Steph, I felt a chasm in my chest, I had never not known where she was. I had never been too far away to know when she was in danger or needed help. Neither Tank nor Santos had any good news to give me, they were pretty sure she wasn't in the area and I conferred with that only based on a feeling I had for when she was near. If she had left the area there were no leads from any camera footage from bus, train or airport departures. No hire cars seemed to match and none of her friends had lent her a car or taken her anywhere. She truly was in the wind. I missed her in a way I never expected to, the stolen kisses, and the touch of her, hell, even her smell and certainly her vivacious and caring attitude. But most of all I felt as though a piece of me was missing, did I take her for granted? Did I give back to her what she so freely gave to me? On entering the gym I was pleased to see the newbies were being put through their paces and each one did seem to be more focused on their activities. I went through my routine probably running harder than normal but I needed to vent some pent up energy. I spied Tank about to leave the area.

"Tank you fancy taking a stroll down Stark and rattling some cages?"

He stopped, turned and gave me an evil look.

"Hell yeah I'm up for that, we chasing some Intel on those so called groups the FBI are after?"

"Yes, I thought it might be worth our while to get ahead of the game, I'll meet you downstairs in 40, bring two other guys, your choice"

After showering I dressed in my "Stark Street Ranger" persona, as Steph would call it. Black cargos, hoodie over Kevlar, cat boots and more weapons than usual, adding the gold stud and enough gold chains to start a jewelry store I was more than ready for action. Tank, Cal and Santos were waiting in the garage next to a black SUV.

"Ready to rock n roll"

Santos could be the joker and lover boy but as a lethal weapon there was no one to surpass him, except maybe me. The beasts we contained were obviously keen to play. We decided to hit the streets according to the gangs that were represented, each of us taking the lead where that would give us the most benefit. We pulled up in front of a bar where the Hispanics tended to congregate, I took lead on this one, Santos was with me while Tank and Cal stood guard outside the door, we didn't need to be here if anything kicked off.

"Qué hay de nuevo en las calles?"

"Hablar de problemas"

"Who from?"

"Not sure, but they don't seem to like us"

"What trouble?"

"Deals gone wrong, attacks"

"Are the other gangs giving you trouble?"

"Don't know, always at night and they sneaky"

"Let me know if you find out anything more"

I left the bar where the Hispanics were playing pool.

Next up were The Bloods, mainly made up of African-Americans. The gang was widely known for its rivalry against another rival gang, known as the Crips, and was identified by the color red and for the specific gang symbols worn by their members. I decided to let Tank lead with them, as he would be the closest of us to their coloring. But we needed to be aware that The Bloods could comprise of sub-groups that had significant differences in political ideas, and that could be in open conflict with each other. I stayed outside as my presence might detract from any information they might give. After only ten minutes Tank re entered the SUV.

"Similar story to what we heard before, but there's no selection as to who is being hit, I'm getting a nasty feeling in my gut on this one"

One last group to speak to and this was where Santos would take the lead, another African American gang but as they were enemies with the previous two groups we'd spoken with it would be interesting to see how they were affected. Santos and Cal went through the open gates and after a complicated handshake sat on a bench to talk with three of the members, while Tank and I kept watch on the streets. These boys were on the basketball court so while they may have the numbers we'd let them see we had the firepower.

"They're not happy, they reckon someone's out to get them and not just by disrupting supplies, but also through beatings and in some cases murder. There's concern for some of their ho's disappearing as well"

"Santos get in touch with Adams from vice and see if he has anything"

Santos had a good relationship with this particular officer, probably because they frequented some of the same clubs and most probably the same beds.

"Let's head back and do some of our own conversations then meet in an hour."

We all had our own snitches or someone with a closer eye on the street. Once we were back at Rangeman and in my office, I picked up my phone and started, I had three people to talk to.

"Good afternoon this is Vincent Plum Bail Bonds, How may I help?"

"Connie, is Lula there to talk to?"

"Sure I'll put her on Ranger"

"Mmm it's me"

"Lula I've heard that some ladies on the street might be having some problems, what do you know?"

"Ain't good Ranger, spoke with Jackie an she ses a lot of them there girls are crapping themsels"

"You know who?"

"Not the usual, these are outta towners riding them big bikes, they's bin tellin em to get off of the street or else"

"Are you aware of this new group?"

"There's more white dudes around, big n brawny n loud. I hear's they's hangin somewhere down by the docks"

"Thanks Lula and you be careful out there"

"Hey wait, don't you hang up on me, when's my white girl home?"

"When she finishes"

With that I finished the call. Interesting Lula could be a hive of information and she didn't really know it. Next was Nicki Delfaldo, he worked, if you could call it that, for any mafia boss who paid the right price. Each boss had his own turf and dealt from racketeering, prostitution, drug running to arms, you name it they did it, as long as they kept away from someone else's turf there was peace.

"Nicki it's Ranger, you free to speak?"

"Sure what's rolling my man?"

"You hear of any problems the bosses might be having?"

"Nah all's quiet between them, though there's some trespassing by someone else"

"Any ideas on who?"

"Outsiders is all I hear"

"Thanks Nicki let me know if that changes?"

"Sure, then you'll owe me one"

I had an idea of what we might be up against, but needed to see what the others had found out. We met in my office and from the anticipation it seemed most had found out something to tell.

"All right, Santos?"  
"Adams is aware of drugs moving through different routes and he's pretty sure that it's stuff taken from some of the gangs. A few gang members have turned up dead, interestingly from different gangs"

"Tank?"

"We seem to have a new group in town or at least groups working together, lot of vibes on the street and not just from gang members but everyone"

"I spoke with Lula who has an interesting view of the streets. Street women threatened, especially round Stark. She also mentioned a lot of bikers and big brawny white guys hanging out down by the docks. No problems between the Bosses, just losing some of their trade"

Cal was the first one to say it out loud, you could almost see his skull tattoo go through the thinking process.

"White bikers, Warlocks and Outlaws?"

"Could explain who, not sure why or why here"

Cal got up and walked around the table then stood against the back of the chair.

"I could get undercover, not sure who else would fit the bill"

Tank grimaced.

"You want to tell me Ranger, why we would want to get involved with this?"

"I honestly don't know, maybe a gut reaction that if we do we might be ahead of the shit storm when it flies?"

"Well let me do some noseying around for a couple of days and see what I find?"

In the end we agreed with Cal, going on his own to start with, to gather what info he could, without getting involved with any activities. Hector would fit him up with a wire, tracker, panic button and ear bud and we would dedicate Binkie as his comms rep, or partner. Cal was OK with this, but he wanted top of the line equipment that couldn't be detected. It was the end of the day for me but I decided to stay on five and grab a sandwich, I had paperwork to get on with, and to be honest there was no way I could sit upstairs on seven on my own and relax, I couldn't relax until I knew that Steph was safe.


	3. Chapter Ch 5 & 6

Chapter 5

Even though the flight from Washington to New Orleans was short I still hated the up and the down parts. It was a fair distance into the actual city and when the taxi stopped I actually looked at him thinking, where the hell is the hotel? I'd been booked into the Frenchmen Hotel on Frenchmen St, and I had to admit I loved the intimate feel of the place. It was actually based through an archway and had rooms on either side of a long yard, with a very small pool and lots of tropical plants. My room while not overly big had the softest, most comfortable bed I had ever bounced on. The feel was of old world, elegant décor and wood furnishings. There were modern features like Cable TV and air conditioning and I had a private terrace. Yes, I felt safe inside here, there was a rooftop bar and food was also served up there, so I didn't need to leave. Except I did. I needed to pick up a parcel from a post office, the French Quarter Postal Emporium on

Bourbon Street. I asked for directions at reception and was told it was easy to find, turn right out the hotel, then third left, after the third cross street it was on the left, easy! As I walked down the street, much as I found the buildings and scenery really interesting, I was beginning to feel uncomfortable. I stopped at a shop window and looked in the reflection to see if there was something or someone that was out of place. The closer I got to the post office my spidey senses were off the scale. I walked past it and slowed to turn around, no one obviously following me, so I decided to just get this done and walked into the place. Nothing untoward happened and five minutes later with another box in my hand I speed walked back to the hotel and into my room. I was hot and sweaty and shaky. I really wanted to get out of here. The box was the same as the others, except there was only an envelope inside; strange why not just leave the envelope, why go to the trouble of a box? Inside with the letter was a single key, and flight tickets.

"My dearest Stephanie

Your last leg of the journey is almost here. In the morning take the flight to Miami; this is where your journey ends. There will be a motorbike parked in the long stay park at number 375, you have the key. You will find a helmet and leathers in the pillion box. Drive out to Key Biscayne, as you go over the bridge take the first left turn, then left and finally left to arrive in front of a large metal gate. Use your date of birth to open the gate and the same code to get into the house; a safe is in the master bedroom closet, sunk into the floor, use the same code to retrieve my last letter. I'll speak again when you are there.

Beatrice"

Yipes these were a hell of a set of instructions, not even an address, what if I got lost or couldn't find the house? I placed the letter with all the others, Beatrice had told me to get rid of them, but something told me not to, then they went in a leather wallet in a zipped section in my rucksack. The end of another day, but the same routine as before, a shower and room service, I was now keen to get this thing finished with, the excitement of the chase was beginning to wane, and I felt lonely. As I lay in my bed I could hear music from the streets, I wish I were strong enough to go out and enjoy the nightlife and walk the streets. A tear fell down my cheek, how I wished for Ranger to be here.

Since I was supposed to wear leathers and ride a bike I decided on black hipster jeans for my journey. I just didn't realize how hot and humid Miami would be, the bike was exactly where it was supposed to be and now donned in leathers and a helmet I sat astride the Kawasaki Vulcan 800 Classic, good job I had a motorbike license, how on earth did Beatrice know that? The engine roared to life and the sound inside the confines of the parking area caused my heart to hitch up in pace, now this could well compete with my lowly showerhead massager. There was a sat nav with the bike so I put in the name of the Key where I needed to be, dropped the clutch, engaged the gear and I was off. The sky was a hazy blue, with wisps of cloud floating high in the sky, and it was sunny and warm. Traffic was manic compared to what I was used to, but on a bike it was easy to nip in and out of lines of cars. The buildings were brighter and there were lots of people meandering along the sidewalks, going from the shops or bars, all in skimpy sun wear. I was too intent on watching where I was going to look in the side mirror but when I did, I realized another bike had pulled out coming up behind me, a car between us. I maneuvered around the car in front of me and accelerated away but that didn't shake the bike. Another look and I realized that there was also a pillion passenger as well. Would I get done for speeding in Miami? I tried turning down side streets and pulling in front of cars, and although the sat nav must have thought I was nuts, I couldn't shake them. It was a good job this wasn't a low rider bike because I was ducking and diving using the weight of the bike to almost slalom between the traffic, and at one stage I ended up doing the same into on coming traffic, then I hit a left turn causing a car to skid along the road. I caught the underside of the bike on the road damaging the plastic. That did the trick though, because the bike following me got caught up in the bedlam. I accelerated away and the good old sat nav got me going in the right direction. Over the bridge, left, then left, and at the end of the road I came to a large metal gate. Not wanting to dismount I pulled up close to the metal box and started to enter the code, my birthday. The gate opened and as I drove through started to close, I brought the bike to a stop in front of the door and quickly pushed it up on the stand, entered the code to open the front door, then I grabbed my rucksack, flung the door closed behind me and sank to my ass against the wall. With my knees to my chin I realized I had a severe case of the shakes and felt so cold. I must have dozed, passed out maybe, because when I became of where I was, it was starting to get dark outside. I stood with my bag tight to my chest and wandered down the small corridor coming out into an open plan room. I didn't want to attract attention by switching on any lights, but from the ambient light coming in from outside I could see couches, a TV and bookcases, possibly pictures. But for now I needed somewhere safe, somewhere I could find my zone. There was a staircase to the side that led up to a mezzanine with three doors leading from it, I opened the door facing me and walked into a massive bedroom, obviously the master suite. I tried the light switch but nothing happened, surely there was electricity in the house. I found the closet but without a light I wasn't going to try and open the safe. Another door revealed a bathroom and this time the light worked, strange? I stripped my clothes as I moved inside and while I ran the bath checked the cabinet for some soap or even shampoo, yes, both and even conditioner. Sitting in the bath I slowly teased the braids from my hair, god that felt so good on my scalp, then washed, and lay back in the hot water trying to soak away the events that had happened. I stirred as the water cooled down, and quickly applied conditioner then stood under the shower to rinse all the soap off me and rinse my hair. With a towel around my body and one around my head I headed back into the bedroom and heard the bed calling my name.  
Chapter 6 The day had been quiet as far as days went, the morning meeting reported on a couple of alarms that had gone off, but in each case it was the client who had entered the wrong code. Set ups for new systems were underway for new clients and surveillance had been unusually quiet. There was no update on Steph and by now a lot of the men were showing signs of being worried, they missed her as well, what's the saying "absence makes the heart grow fonder" As I was approaching the break room I stopped outside the door when I heard one of the newbies, Hickman I think, talking. "So what's all the talk about this woman not being here, is she the hot one with the amazing blue eyes?" "Yeah, that's Steph and I'll tell you now to treat her with respect" "Why you banging her?" "What? Of course not" "Hell I would if I got the chance, maybe I'll try my luck when she gets back" "I'm warning you, you stay well away from her"  
"Or else what?" That was the final straw for me, I slammed the door open acknowledging Hal, who by now was beginning to go red with anger. "Boss" "Hal give me a minute alone, if you don't mind" I turned to Hickman fully realizing that my blank face showed absolute anger. Hal quickly left the room and the newbie had the nerve to ignore me and turn toward the fridge. I grabbed him by the arm and swung him to face me. "If you disrespect Stephanie again, speak to her or of her, you will have me to deal with, do I make I make myself clear?" "Err yes I suppose" "You suppose what soldier?" "Yes sir" With that I walked out before I smashed my fist in his face. I was fuming when I sat down at my desk and slammed my fist on the surface; Santos of course chose to walk in at that exact moment. "Something got you all pissed off?" "Yes, that newbie, Hickman" "What's he done?" "Mouthing off about Steph to Hal" "Well there's a saying primo "love 'em or lose 'em" you decided which one yet?" "Santos!" "Just pointing out that if you're going continue to play around with her, someone else is gonna come along and sweep her off her feet, you're lucky Morelli's such a prick that she's dumped him, or maybe they'll get back together again. That might be the only option she'll have if you don't step up primo" I looked at him with a glare and at least he had the decency to leave the room. Shit he was right though, I needed to man up and start undoing some of the damage I'd put her through, because yeah, I couldn't carry on without all of her in my life, the problem I had was how did she feel about me? Cal called in on his way back from town, he was changing clothes at the house he rented on the next block, he'd said he didn't want anyone to recognize him leaving this building, which made perfect sense. Tank came in a minute later. "How did you get on Cal?" "Made some progress, found the bar where some of them hang out, so mooched around, showing my face, but not getting involved with any talk. I'm back there tonight, so if my face is familiar that may just enable me to get closer in to listen in on their conversations" "Good plan man, make sure you're covered" Both men left the office and I was hoping to get some paperwork done. I was feeling off and realized I'd stared at the same report for twenty minutes without reading a dam thing. Something was wrong, I could feel it, another ten minutes and my phone went off, strange, it was Juan from the Miami office. He's my older brother and is in charge of that office. "Juan, what's wrong?" By now I was worried something had happened with Julie. "This is a strange one Carlos, do you remember that account you set up years ago out on Key Biscayne?" "Hell just, I think it was someone Abuela Rosa knew from church, she was really quite, I don't know, had an attitude that she was better than anyone else" "Could be, well the intruder alarms gone off. I sent someone out and whilst there's no alarm sounding or flashing it's still going off here and we can't shut it down" "Hold on, let me bring the file up on my computer" "You got it?" "Yeah, Charlotte Rains, only wanted us to pick up if the house was breached, it isn't on our usual monitoring, shit, it's programmed in for my digital retinal scan" "Why the hell would you do that?" "Hell Juan, it was when we first started up the office down there. She had more money than sense and Abuela insisted that I take personal care of it" "So you're gonna have to get down here then aren't you ASAP" "Shit I don't need this now" "Tough little brother you shouldn't have made yourself so indispensable should you?" "I'll use the private jet and be there in about three and a half hours, have a car for me at the airport for when I land, and I'll go straight to the house" "Done, I'll speak to you when it's sorted" The flight to Miami was quick and quiet, hell it should be for the money it cost. I reviewed the file on Charlotte Rains, she must be in her late seventies by now, I wonder if she has a husband still alive? Nothing had come up on the original search, but in those early days Silvio wasn't the go to man for research, and programs weren't as invasive as they are now. Come to think of it, I didn't take to the woman, but Abuela Rosa had insisted she was a pillar of the community and it would be very good for business. Her payments, while high considering we didn't monitor as such, were still being paid but the system was still top of the range. Once I had landed, I was met by Henri and handed a set of keys to a black SUV; I entered the address into the cars sat nav and drove through streets still bustling with nightlife, Miami was never quiet. The road leading up to the house was empty, no one would need to be here unless visiting the property, and hopefully the old woman had triggered the alarm off herself. I stopped by the gate and sat confused at the entry system. As I studied the plate there looked to me as if someone had added an additional entry system, I took out my phone to check. "Juan, have you updated the entry system?" "No, I didn't even know that account existed, why?" "Someone's added a second entry pad to use a code on, doesn't look like one we'd use" "No idea hermano" "OK then I'm on my way in, I'll get back to you when I'm finished" The gate opened with my retinal scan and I drove up to the entrance of the house. Strange, that there was a motorbike right outside, and there seemed to be some damage to it, no lights on in the house but I didn't like the feel of it. With a Maglite and a gun in hand I quietly opened the door, nothing unusual. It sounded quiet and inspection of the first floor showed no signs of forced entry, everywhere was exceptionally tidy so no burglars? Onto the upstairs and I began to get a familiar feeling, I'm not sure why, I cleared the first two rooms and decided that the last door could hold the answer as to why the alarms had been activated. I shut off the Maglite and stealthily opened the door, and looked through the gap, I didn't want to give the old lady a heart attack, but it was my heart that kicked up in pace when I saw a body stretched out over the bed with sheets barely covering them. The ambient light from the moon coming in through the window shone over the figure that was definitely not old, but was female from the shape. I moved quietly into the room and held my breath. Long legs flowed from underneath a towel that barely covered her ass, but it was the dark curly brown hair spread across the pillow that caused my breath to catch in my lungs. She was lying on her stomach with her left arm curled around the pillow by her head that was facing away from me. The other arm was tucked under her body and her left leg was bent, with the other straight. I quietly walked and knelt in front of her face. My Babe was safe and fast asleep; I felt my heart swell as I tucked a stray curl from her cheek behind her ear. She was so still, it unnerved me, and Steph was never this still even when sleeping. A quick scan of her body showed no injuries, so maybe she was absolutely exhausted, that may account for her stillness. I went back downstairs and reset the alarm, then sent a text to Juan. "Sorted" I re entered the bedroom, now noticing clothes dropped on the floor, then moved to the side of the bed. Even here Steph chose to sleep on the left side of the bed, as I made to raise a cover up over her she stirred and mumbled in her sleep, I stilled as she moved and brought her right arm free and turned her head to face me. First I wanted the comfort of holding her. I toed off my shoes and placed my gun and torch by the side of the bed then I lay down by her side and placed my arm over her waist, I smiled as she instinctively moved toward me and hooked a leg over mine snuggling into my chest. God how I had missed her, how I felt complete now with her in my arms, I needed to, no, I wanted to tell her just how important she was to me. As I relaxed I could feel her nuzzling my chest and knew the instant that she was becoming aware of my presence, her breathing increased, as did her heart rate, then she became absolutely still as if trying to work out what was different. Her eyes came open showing total panic and for once my Babe was speechless. "Hey you're OK, I'm here, it's safe" "What are you… how did you … why are you here?" "For you, I'll explain everything later and you can tell me all about your adventure." "Oh, I must have fallen asleep, what time is it?" "Only 1am, so we need to sleep, OK?" "Mmm" I returned to lie on my back and was pleased when she tucked her head over my arm onto my chest and moved herself as close as she could possibly get. My arms automatically entwined around her, holding her, and it wasn't long before we both fell asleep. 


	4. Chapter 7 & 8

Chapter 7 I really didn't want to wake up from this wonderful dream, where Ranger was wrapped around me. I basked in the closeness and comfort I was feeling, hoping to prolong the desires I felt in my body and in my heart. I sighed because as soon as I woke up reality would come crashing down and my heart would break just a little more, knowing what it felt like to love that man, but to never be able to have him. I couldn't allow my body to curl against his and my lips would never explore his. I sighed, in my sleep or in my dream, I'm not sure, and slowly the cobwebs began to drift away, leaving the view of? Warm brown eyes and a smiling face surrounding by dark silken hair! I jolted back, blinking to make sure I was in fact awake. "Babe, how're you feeling?" "Not sure, I think I need to wake up" Lips across mine in a gentle caress and hands stroking circles on my hip had my skin tingling and I was definitely awake. "I don't understand" "No I don't either, I think we need to swap stories and work out how we both ended up in the same place, I found you fast asleep" "Oh" I know I was sounding simple but really how many women wake up with their dream man in their bed. Looking down I realized I wasn't wearing anything; I felt my cheeks warm up and quickly wrapped the large towel around my body. Ranger was already dressed and he slipped out of the bed and turned to me. "Come on, you need to get dressed and then we can check this place out, I don't want to be here any longer than we need to be" "I agree, someone followed me yesterday, and they were really aggressive about it" As I reached the bathroom I turned to him. "How come you're already dressed?" "I stayed dressed, I wanted to be prepared in case someone showed up" "How should I dress?" "I'm sorry Babe, I don't follow you" "Well I've been in disguise so far, do you want me to stay in disguise or just be me" "I love you as you, though I like the tattoos, I hope they're temps" "Yeah just part of the image" I picked up my rucksack and the clothes I had literally dropped on the floor last night and disappeared into the bathroom to shower. Showered, hair sorted into a ponytail and dressed in my black jeans and a T-shirt, I came out and proceeded to collect my things together to pack into my bag. I found Ranger downstairs going through drawers and cupboards in the lounge. "What are you looking for?" "Anything that will tell me something about the owner of the house" "You find anything?" "No, absolutely nothing, the place is empty apart from the furniture" "I'm supposed to collect something from the safe upstairs in the bedroom" "You know the combination?" "Yes, it's the same as the code for getting into here" "Let's go see what's in there then" Upstairs I opened the closest and knelt down on the floor, uncovering the keypad. I entered the date of my birthday and slowly turned the handle. A loud click signaled my success and I slowly opened the door. "Your birthday was the code?" "Yes" Inside was a single envelope with something lose inside, the same as the previous ones I had been given. "Take that and let's get out of here, I'm not happy that someone followed you and I think we would be safer back at Rangeman" Picking up the envelope I tucked it into my rucksack and went toward the door. "Hold on, I've requested Rangeman to do a scout around the place, wait until they report back" Not a minute later Ranger's phone dinged with a text. "Ok, let's go" He took my hand keeping me slightly behind him and opened the passenger door of a black SUV. "What about the bike?" "Was it provided for you to use?" "Yes, it was in the parking area at the airport" "Then we'll leave it here" Once buckled in, Ranger wasted no time turning on the ignition and we were through the gate, which was already closing, we made our way down the narrow road and onto the highway. Ranger was in his zone, but I could see he was being super vigilant. Another SUV pulled out behind us and drove ahead on the road as we took an exit. I looked at Ranger hoping he would know what I would be asking. "Rangeman is running interference in case we're being followed" I didn't respond but enjoyed the scenery passing the window, deep in thought, I wondered what was in this next envelope and how this whole secret of Beatrice's would come out, I couldn't get my head around why Ranger was here. The main business section of Miami city was busy, but traffic was moving, and before long we pulled in front of large metal gates that opened for the car, allowing us to drive into a garage very similar to the one in Trenton. Ranger pulled into a space at the far end, by what seemed to be an elevator and staircase entrance. He opened my door and taking my hand helped me down, I instinctively picked up my rucksack and slipped it onto one shoulder then entered the elevator. I noticed that there were not as many floors to this building and we exited onto level three. There was a hum of activity that dropped to almost silence as men turned to look at us. Ranger still had hold of my hand, which now I think about it was unusual. A man who was older than Ranger, but who had the same skin tone and facial features, strode out of a door and came up to us. "Carlos, a lot of smoke and dagger stuff, everything go OK at the house?" "Yes but I think we need to follow up there" "And who may I ask is this beautiful woman, you don't usually bring any here?" I looked down at my feet; I wondered where he did usually take them? "This is Stephanie Plum, from Trenton" "You mean the Bombshell, hell, why didn't you tell us she was coming?" "Not actually planned, Babe this is my brother Juan, he runs this office" I held my hand out with true Burg manners but before I could say anything Juan had swept me into a bone-crushing hug. "I am so pleased to eventually meet you in person, I've heard so much about you" No sooner had he let me go, than another pair of arms came around me. "Steph it's so good to see you, let me look at you" Hands on my shoulders revealed Silvio, the Merry Man who had first trained me to do the searches. "Silvio! How are you doing? I'm really relieved to see a face I know" "Don't take any notice of the rest of these boneheads they're just curious about you" Ranger took my hand again and led me down the corridor into an identical office as the one he had in Trenton. "Déjà vu" "Yeah basics are the same but each floor has a bigger square footage so we didn't need the same number of floors. Babe do you mind if Juan and Silvio are in on the conversation we need to have?" Did I? I trusted Silvio and obviously Ranger trusted his brother. "No but just those two, please" "Good, then let's get started" Juan and Silvio came into the office and we sat at a round table set to one side. As we all got seated a small Latino woman entered the room pushing a cart full of food. I smiled at her as she began to place plates in front of us. "I had Emma prepare us some food, as I know we haven't had breakfast" "Thanks Ranger, I'm starved, I didn't eat anything yesterday, other than on the plane" "Babe you want me to go first?" "Please" He explained about the house and how he had set up the system some years ago and the way in which Rangeman had it on their books, but not as a usual residence they monitored. I was surprised when Juan and Silvio admitted they knew nothing about it, and that it was under a name I didn't know. When it came to my turn I repeated my story of the parcel and letters and how I'd been led across the country to eventually be at that same house. I got up and began to pace, both Ranger and Silvio knew how I worked, but Juan was obviously confused. "Babe what's got you worried?" I ignored him while I tried to work out the puzzle in my head. "My spidey senses are telling me to be careful" Juan looked from Silvio to Ranger then back at me. "Steph has the best instincts of anyone I've ever worked with, if she says there's a problem then I believe her, so should you Juan" I smiled at Ranger; it felt really good for him to believe in me. "Thanks Ranger, alright I'm gonna start by throwing out questions that I don't have a clear answer for. Why do you and I have two different names for a person in that house, and why was there nothing personal there? Why use Rangeman to alarm the house if you were never really going to monitor it, 'cos it sure wasn't cheap? Why insist on Ranger responding personally? And why did I set the alarm off if she expected me there?" I looked around at the three men, obviously they had no answers either, and I sure didn't. Juan looked over at Ranger then responded to me. "Someone had installed an additional system to allow a code entry, I think they did that not knowing it would set off our alarm" "So no one was expecting Ranger to turn up?" "I don't think so" "Any ideas on why this woman has sent me all over the place in disguise and who followed me?" Ranger stood up and pulled me down onto his lap, his arms locked around me keeping me still.

"Plan of action then. Silvio I want you to pull everything you can on the two names we have, Beatrice Lang and Charlotte Rains, when you finish confer with Steph because she can see details you might miss, and she has some back door searches up her sleeve. Juan set up a _surveillance_ team on the house, but keep it discreet. Babe we need to read your next letter"

"Ranger would it help to analyze the letters and envelopes for fingerprints or hand writing?"

"Good thinking, Silvio can you get the lab boys to do their work, but don't let on the reasons behind it, Babe let me copy them and the we have something to work with"

The others left the office and I removed the letters and the ids I'd been given. Ranger looked at the id photos and frowned.

"What?"

"I don't know, she had you in a strange disguise Babe and she seemed to know you really well especially since she'd never met you"

I shrugged my shoulders because to me any disguise would have been strange and if you went on the Internet all sorts of ideas came up.

"Maybe she has access to super searches like you?"

"Maybe, let's copy the letters and get them to the lab"

I handed the letters over and reread the earlier ones as I waited for Ranger to copy them. When he'd finished he passed them to Silvio, who was in the room next door, along with the envelopes. I then looked at the copy of the last letter that had been in the safe, when I had opened this letter a small key had fallen out.

" Well done Stephanie you certainly surpassed yourself if you are reading this letter.

You have a few days before your next action and then everything will fall into place and I will be able to rest in peace. In the city of Trenton within the Rosenbaum Bank there are safety deposit boxes that have been there for years, use the key, the documents you must retrieve to unearth the truth are there. You will know what to do with them. Beatrice" I read it twice before I put the letter down and looking at Ranger said. "I don't like this and my gut it telling me it's trouble, but I still don't know why" Ranger walked up to me and put his hands on either side of my face. "We'll work it out" "I want to go home, to go somewhere to get my head working, do we have to stay here?" "No, we can go home" And that is exactly what we did; Ranger let Juan and Silvio know our plans and that we were available when they had anything to report. Back in the car a Miami Merry Man took us to the airport but pulled through the gate for private jets. On exiting the car I looked in shock at the small plane we were headed for. "It's too small" "Babe it perfectly safe" With that I was just about dragged up the stairs by Ranger and into what can only be described as opulent sky travel. Ranger buckled me into a leather chair and took the seat next to me. "Ready?" "No" He laughed at me, until he realized I'd started to panic, then as the engines grew louder and we started to move he pulled my face to his and teased my lips open with his, I opened my mouth for his tongue to enter, I reciprocated his actions dueling for control, and with my fingers through his hair pulled him tighter until we moved apart lips still touching. I was breathing hard and my heart rate had gone up, I couldn't let this happen. I squeezed my eyes shut willing myself to calm down, and then turned and looked at Ranger, he was smiling at me? What was that about? "That was cheating" "Well I feel better, how's about you?" He'd kissed the hell out of me and I totally missed the take off, we were now cruising into the clouds above Miami. "Better, but my spidey senses are still buzzing" I curled against Ranger and got myself comfortable while he worked on his laptop. We'd been travelling for maybe an hour, me dozing most of the time, when there was a sudden juddering sensation that I felt through my chair and had me wide awake, Ranger tightened my seat belt while he got up and went to the front of the plane, he was gone too long for my liking and my spidey senses were singing now. I could feel vibrations through the floor and I was sure we were losing altitude. I unbuckled my seat belt and holding onto the backs of the other seats made my way forward into the cockpit. Ranger was on the radio and the pilot was struggling with the controls. Ranger turned to the pilot. "You know what to do, make sure you follow orders" He then turned me around, pushed me back into the cabin and opened up an overhead locker, pulling down green cloth coloured bundles, what on earth were they? There were three of them. He grabbed two green anoraks and thrust one toward me, while putting the other on himself. "Hurry put this on" I took the jacket and put it on, it was way too big, and why did I need a jacket? Looking back up at Ranger I looked on with shock as one of the bundles went on his back with straps between his legs, at his waist and over his shoulders. "You have to be kidding me?" I think I was too shocked to panic as I was turned around and a similar set of straps was attached to me. The co pilot retrieved what I now recognized as a parachute and quickly and adeptly put it on, at a nod from Ranger, he then went through the procedure to manually open the door. By then I was securely fastened to the front of Ranger, but was trying real hard to stay where I was. Not happening, Ranger picked me up, put goggles over my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest. "You always wanted to fly Babe, close your eyes and keep your arms folded, I won't let go of you"

"Shit NO"

I had no leverage and as Ranger squatted down I was just about sat on his knee, seriously, there was a whoosh as the doors fully opened. As soon as we sat on the edge we were sucked out. My legs were flailing about and I tried to control my limbs, and get myself in order. It's hard to describe the feeling, the butterflies in my stomach, the intense adrenaline. It is like flying. Once I'd got a handle on my breathing, I tried to look around and savor the moment. It was absolutely incredible. Soon he'd released the parachute, just as I was getting a feel for it, but also just as I was starting to worry it wouldn't open. As the parachute opened the experience suddenly became a lot calmer. It was my chance to look around and take in the scenery, all I could see were trees and mountains and I envisioned us stuck at the top of some pine tree. As he swooped down and around I could tell he was looking for somewhere to safely land, I got just that little bit emotional. The relief at having survived and the disbelief that I'd done it, added to the incredible view just got too much for me. We cruised around for a few minutes and as our height got lower and the ground got closer he came in to land, skirting trees and rocky outcrops. I just had to lift my legs up as high as possible and he took the impact by gliding across the floor before coming to a complete stop. At first I was thankful to be back on the ground, then I was gutted it was all over. Ranger unclipped the parachute and it floated to the ground behind us. Then he released the clips holding me to him, pushed the goggles off my head, I turned around to face him and threw myself around him, arms and legs, and I'm surprised he managed to keep his balance. His grip on me was just as tight.

"Christ, Babe are you alright, not hurt or anything?"

"I'm fine, better than fine, that was freaking awesome, I want to do it again, but not when a plane is about to crash"

"I knew you'd love it"

Back on the ground he gently wiped a tear from my cheek then with a hand on either side of my face kissed my forehead, my nose then my lips.

"I don't think I would survive if I lost you, when we a have chance we need to have a long talk"

That's when my head dipped down, my heart broke a little more and my eyes teared up. He was going to send me away again, I cause him too much trouble and he can't afford to have me constantly needing him. His fingers lifted my chin and he frowned as he looked into my eyes.

"Babe I'm never ever sending you away nor am I ever going to walk away from you. The decision is entirely with you, think about it"

Not sure what he meant by that, but I suddenly felt ecstatic and smiled back at him. He took off a bag that had been around his waist and got out various instruments.

"Ranger what happened to the other two men?"

"They jumped before the plane went down"

"Why'd the plane go wrong?'

"Not sure Babe, but some of the instruments were malfunctioning and we were losing fuel"  
"You think someone sabotaged it?"

"Yes, the guys are excessive about pre flight checks, but there was an hour between the checks and us taking off"

"Where are we?"

"Somewhere in the southern section of George Washington and Jefferson National Forest"

"Right and that's not good 'cos even I know it's a big freaking park"

"Yeah, we'd got in touch with Hop-along airport, north of where we were, but I'm not sure how close we are. An SOS went out and the plane should automatically transmit its whereabouts, but we're no where near the plane for when they send out a rescue party"

"Phone?"

"No signal"

"You've no Batman signal you can send to Tank?"

"No Babe, we'll use the GPS, as long as it can lock on to enough satellites, till then lets scout around for somewhere to settle for the night before it gets too dark"

"What are we going to be sharing our camp with?"

"Black bears are common but as we don't have food I don't think they'll bother us, White-tailed deer, bobcats, bald eagles, weasels, otters, and martens they're all here somewhere, but they will be more frightened of us so they'll keep their distance. If a bear approaches you, don't run, back away slowly. Face the bear, but don't look directly into its eyes, wave your arms, make lots of noise and stomp your feet. But remember, you can't out run one. They are extremely fast on the ground or at climbing a tree. If the bear attacks, fight back with anything available. Act aggressively"

"Shit, you mean it's like black bear meets Jersey girl?"

"Yeah, you do that and you'll be fine, but it won't come to that"

We started to walk slowly down the slope between the trees, my hand held tightly in Rangers, the sky was darkening and the sounds coming from the forest was changing. Insects were trying to catch the last of the suns rays. Ahead there was an outcrop of rock. Ranger walked around it and decided this was a good location to rest and it would give us some protection, not quite a cave but enough to feel closed off from the world. I collected some wood and decided that the enormous pile I had collected should be enough. Ranger had gone to find water and to see if he could get a better signal for the GPS. I pulled out my hoodie and put it on under the coat, with the fire going, I sat with my chin on my knees and looked out into the darkness. Needless to say I didn't hear or see Ranger till he was nearly on top of me. He sat behind me with his legs and arms encircling me. We sat in companionable silence.

"It's not the same as being near the sea but it makes a pretty good second. The sounds are almost hypnotic"

"I feel the same, I have a log cabin in Maine that has a similar feel, I'll take you there one day"

"So, find much out?"

"Not really, we'll head down and hope to find a river we can follow, or maybe we'll be more visible from the sky, I left our parachute opened up so maybe someone will see it from above"

I turned my body into his and snuggled into his chest, my favorite place to be. He felt me move and his arms pulled me into him tighter, I could feel him breathing into my hair, and hear the beat of his heart against my ear. His nearness brought out all the anguish I had bottled up.

"I can't do this"

"Do what?"

"Be this close to you"

"I don't understand"

"Ranger I can't be the girl on the side, friends with benefits, it's breaking me"

I tried to move out of his hold but he wouldn't let me go. He turned my face up to his and with a hand on the back of my head brought his lips to mine, at that moment I really didn't care, I should probably take what I could, I just needed him to love me back. When we came back for air with his head on my forehead he whispered.

"Te quiero mucho"

I knew what he had said and was waiting for the qualifiers to come; I didn't dare say anything because that could frighten him off.

"Babe no qualifiers, no excuses, I just can't keep pushing you away"

"What are you saying?"

"I always said someday, and I've worked hard to get here"

"I still don't understand"

"I needed to get Rangeman secure as a business, and that meant some high risk missions which paid very well. I couldn't get involved with you in case I didn't come back, I couldn't trust myself not to hurt you even more, but now I've finished with those, I won't be leaving to go away in the wind again"

I felt my eyes tear up, he loves me, and maybe he always had, but wouldn't admit to it?

"Babe I've always loved you in the only way I knew how, my life is always going to be chaotic and dangerous, but I think yours is probably the same, I just want you to be safe. I realized this week after you'd gone that if I didn't say this to you I could lose you forever, and I don't want that to happen"

My only response, as for once words wouldn't come, was to hold his face and kiss him, demanding of passion and giving everything I felt. Without even thinking it through I said what my heart felt.

"I love you too Ricardo Carlos Manoso"

That sent him over the edge as he then moved his mouth across to my neck licking and biting across to the lobe of my ear, my coat was off my shoulder and his hands were pushing under my layers of clothes toward my breasts. I moaned as he tweaked my nipples and massaged the surrounding area. I tugged at his coat and shirt until they were over his head then ran my tongue down his neck to the junction of his shoulders. My tops disappeared and he slowly eased me back to lie on the discarded clothes, as his teeth nibbled at my breast My hands and fingers ran over his chest, I was humming almost literally with sighs and moans as my skin responded to his touch. A snap of a button and a pull on a zip and I lifted my hips to be free of the rest of my clothes. As his mouth moved down to swirl in my belly button I moved to undo his cargos.

"Not yet mi amor, let me love you"

I felt his head between my legs and opened them to allow better access. With my hands laced in his hair and my back arched up I felt his tongue lathe at my opening, my breath hitched and I tried to vocalize where I needed him to be, but what came out were louder moans and interrupted words. His tongue entered me and sent waves throughout my body, I was so close to coming, that a finger with his tongue rippling within me had my muscles spasm and shock waves rippling out, I cried out his name.

"Carlos"

A growl from him

"So wet, so sweet"

He maneuvered his body alongside me, kissing me deep and fast, the taste of my own juices inciting me further. I moved down to his belly button and then to the hair below his waistband, he was already hard and a maneuver had his cargos open and his shaft springing free. My hands freed him and I moved my mouth to taste the pre-cum as it formed on the tip, my lips nipped and licked down the vein to the base while my hands massaged his sacs. He was growling by this time and when my mouth went over his shaft his back arched up pushing his shaft further into my mouth, I used my teeth to gently ignite the skin and hummed from my chest. Then suddenly he removed my head and looked into my eyes.

"I need to be inside of you"

I was flipped onto my back and he moved above me with his arms tucked under my shoulder taking his weight, instinctively I wrapped my legs around his hips and using my hand I guided his shaft to rub along my wet folds. When he was at my entrance I pushed my hips toward his. The feel of him entering me was ecstasy; he moved slowly and stilled allowing me to adjust to his size and then in a dance as old as time we began the ritual moves of moving against each other. He lifted my hips with one arm and the change of angle against my sweet spot had my body quivering for completion.

"Look at me Babe, I want to see you come"

With eyes open I looked into the pools of black, resplendent with a passion and emotion I'd not seen before. As he squeezed my clit, my muscles contracted and with a final push that seemed to touch my womb I fell over the edge shouting his name with him following me. The aftershocks died down leaving me breathless, my heart beating wildly and sweat pouring down my back, with him still inside of me he knelt pulling me up to his chest. I kissed his neck and moved to his lips and across to his ear.

"I love you Carlos"

"I love you too Babe"

Carlos, yes that was the name of the love of my life, he pulled the coat around my shoulders.

"We need to get dressed before it gets too cold"

I whimpered as he withdrew from me but knew we needed to stay warm, I put my layers of clothes back on using my briefs to clean both myself and him, before getting clean ones from my rucksack. Laying our heads on the rucksacks we curled up together holding each other and fell into a dreamless sleep.

Chapter 8

As the sun was beginning to rise showing the start of a new day I watched my Babe as she slept. She had been so strong yesterday when the problems began with the plane, maybe I really did need to take more notice when she was so worried, but I thought it was nerves that had her so upset. There was no way to tell what exactly had caused the failures with the plane, but I didn't believe in coincidence, someone was out to get Steph or maybe me, maybe they would believe that we had died in the crash, something to think about was to continue that subterfuge when we eventually got out of here. I'd left the parachute spread out so it would be clearly visible from the sky; there was enough evidence of the direction we'd taken so hopefully Tank would have a team on the ground soon. Stephs reaction to the jump had me smiling, she loved it once we were in the air, I knew she would, I just wished I could have had her jumping under different circumstances. Last night had been affirming of the love we shared and if it were possible I loved her even more. I felt her moving and saw her eyes flickering, not as in waking up but as in a dream, her frown concerned me, whilst she might deny the dangers that caught up with her she always relived them for a time when she slept. Often I would try to make sure I was with her to comfort her while she slept, the worst time for her was after Scrogg had shot me. I knew she was struggling by the dark circles under her eyes and the paleness of her skin but I couldn't help, Morelli tried to smother her and obviously didn't comfort her, then I had needed to go down to Miami to smooth down the after effects with Rachel and ensure Julie had support through sessions with a doctor. I stroked her cheek and tucked a curl behind her ear then whispered in her ear.

"Babe, time to wake up querida"

She stilled as if working out where she was, then smiled and opened those beautiful blue eyes looking right into my soul.

"Good morning, my love"

Was that her waking thought?

"I think we may have company soon"

"You do, who?"

"Tank and some men will have deployed a rescue mission for us, they're very good at finding people. We need to head to a clearing down the hill"

We collected our things together in silence, as Steph turned she froze, typical; a black bear had decided to take an interest.

"Err, Carlos we have company"

"Remember what I said?"

"Yes"

At that she suddenly stood tall and started to jump up and down waving her arms.

"Go away you big black thingy, we don't want you, there's nothing for you here, go find someone of your own"

Her eyes were bright, her face serious and I don't know if the poor bear was just too shell shocked at her verbal attack or not, but he grunted dropped to all fours and sauntered away from us.

"That told him, Jersey girl 1, black bear 0"

I laughed and taking her hand we began to walk down the slope. Two things made me stop and squat pulling Steph down with me, a sound of breaking twigs behind and the sound of rotors in the distance. Steph laughed and turned to look in the direction we'd come from.

"Tanks here with two others"

How the hell did she know that?

"I heard his laugh and someone reply"

"Really?"

"Nah, look there they are"

Tank was approaching with Ram and Manny all smiling at the sight of us, especially as we had no signs of any injuries. He walked past me and took Steph in his arms.

"Little Girl am I glad to see you"

" Hey Tank, we're good, I did my first chute jump yesterday, it was ace"

"Yeah I heard, come on lets get down to that clearing and I'll radio Santos 'cos you've got another day of firsts to come"

Did the guys totally ignore me? I watched them walk ahead, Manny had his arm around Steph and Ram was leading the way.

"You coming Ranger?"

I caught up to them as a helicopter hovered above the clearing. Steph was looking up at it with a puzzled look.

"Is it going to land?"

The answer came when the winch let the rope down with a harness at the bottom of it.

"Oh no, I came down through the air, I am not going up in that"

Tank looked at me as if to say, you sort it. I walked to the rope and tied the harness around myself then another around Steph. She didn't move or say a word; I think she had decided that this was the only way out of here. I fastened her harness to me then wrapped my arms around her shoulders and my legs around her legs just under her ass, she smiled and reciprocated the move with her arms and as our feet left the ground I gave her a passionate kiss. Hal pulled us into the main compartment, helped to free us of the harness then lowered the winch back down for the team on the ground. With Steph secured into one of the middle seats, I then helped Hal. Once everyone was on board with headsets on, Santos lifted the bird and headed out.

"Where to Ranger?"

"The coast house, we have some discussions and decisions to make, and I need to know how that plane ended up going down"

Steph was snuggled up under my arm, at first I thought she had fallen to sleep, but she raised her head and pointed to the headset, I gave her a nod that I understood she wanted to say something.

"What about the two men on the plane, are they alright?"

"Yes Babe, they made their way to the wreckage and are with the investigators looking at the plane"

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see soon enough"

The flight was smooth and everyone remained quiet, Santos brought the chopper into land on the gassed area in front of a house I owned by the beach. Its ownership was under layers of ownership through subsidiaries that I had set up when I bought the house four years ago. I helped Steph down and took her around to the side entrance that came into the kitchen. The house wasn't overly big but had the potential to build onto. There were two bedrooms with en suite, a lounge and a sunroom across the back, which faced the sea. I'd had Ella help with the décor and here, as opposed to the apartment on seven; she had made it more homely. Was that a word I would use? Well she added color, from pillows and throws in the rooms and had somehow managed to get hold of personal photos that were dotted around. The kitchen though, I insisted was to be functional and easy to keep tidy and clean, it was big enough for a table and bench seats.

"Go have a look round, the master bed room looks over the beach, freshen up and I'll meet you in the sunroom, through there. Oh by the way, there are clothes you can use in the closet"

She gave me a frown but disappeared just as the men came through the door. We helped ourselves to drinks, I'd text Ella earlier to supply the place with whatever she thought would be needed, then we all went into the sunroom.

"I'll leave the chopper here for now in case you want it, so what's going on?"

Everyone looked at me waiting for an answer.

"Steph needs to tell you her side, I'm not sure what we've been caught up in. There's the mystery over a house down in Miami which is how I connected with Steph, but I don't know who would want us dead, if the target is me or Steph, a lot of unanswered questions and a lot of research to do"

Steph came into the room and picking up a beer sat with me, she'd changed into cut off jeans and a white T-shirt.

"Babe it's your show, you can tell these guys anything you want to, or not, if that's the case"

"No they can hear, but it must not go beyond you five guys, promise"

They of course agreed, they'd all do anything to protect her, so she went through her story yet again, answering questions to clarify something when they asked. I then gave more detail of my time in Miami and the work that Juan and Silvio were doing.

"Primo, I spoke with Juan as we found you to let him know you were fine. News hadn't leaked out about the crash so I've told him not to mention it to anyone, even the guys in the office"

"Tank what's the word in Trenton?"

"Most of the guys know there was an accident, though they didn't know Steph was with you, nothings gone out of the office as far as I know"

"Babe you need to decide whether to hole up here and let people think you're still out of town working, if you were the target then the people responsible for the crash may think you're dead"

"I need to get back to Trenton to finish what I started. If I was the target, which I don't think, then it won't work Ranger, once they hear you're OK then they'll assume I am as well, plus not many people knew I was on that plane, maybe you were the target"

"Fair point, when do you want to head back to Trenton?"

"Can I spend at least a full day working with Silvio on those names and the house then at least I might have some answers to work on?"

"No problem, Santos will you fly the chopper back and take Tank, Hal and Manny with you. I'm going to get Hector to come out here this evening. The day after tomorrow Hector can drive Steph back and I'll take one of the cars from the garage so it doesn't look as though we've been working together"

"Oh and Tank send me a report through from Cal then I can see where he's up to, because no doubt the FBI will be knocking soon"

After that Santos and the guys disappeared to fly back, Steph was there to say goodbye and thanked them for saving us, while Ram and I raided the kitchen to start preparing for a meal. Steph came back in and watched as the two of us prepared the food.

"Anything you want me to do?"

"Maybe get the table ready Babe?"

"I can do that"

Our meal lasted longer than I thought it would, Steph was in fine form and was joking with Ram, they were comparing things that had gone wrong when going under cover. As we tidied up I turned to Ram

"Ram can you do a perimeter check and set the alarms up, I'll cover those in the main house?"

"Sure, am I in the apartment?

"Yeah, everything should be set up, I'll see you in the morning"

"Night Steph"

"Night Ram"

Steph and I sat on the couch watching TV, her choice of film no less, only I didn't have Ghostbusters, but "A ghost story" suited us both. I had sat sideways leaning against the arm with Steph leaned against my chest between my legs. I found I was constantly touching her, pulling a curl, rubbing circles on her bare skin or occasionally kissing the top of her head, a hand always linked with hers. I found that I liked the closeness, even craved the contact, I was relaxed and even totally at ease with how I was feeling. At the end of the film she turned sideways and kissed my cheek.

"I enjoyed that film, but I enjoyed just being sat with you"

"I know what you mean"

"So you own this house?"

"Yes, don't get here as much as I'd like to"

"Why not?"

"I tended to come here after a difficult mission, when I needed time on my own"

"It's a lovely place, can we go on the beach in the morning? Or will there be too many people?"

"Private beach, so no people"

"So why are there womens clothes in the closet?"

"For you"

"I don't understand, I know I've left some things in your apartment, but those upstairs are new"

"I've had Ella stock clothes for you, because eventually I wanted to bring you here"

"Oh"

"Come on bedtime, we've had a long day today and tomorrow is going to be busy"

I switched off the lights and taking her hand led her upstairs into the master bedroom. Steph seemed reticent as though she was unsure; I needed to work very hard to diminish the waves of anxiety that seemed to affect her emotionally. I hadn't realized that the things I had said to her in the past would have such a great impact, I must have been stupid to not realize that by protecting myself from the feelings I was having, I was hurting her. I walked behind her and turned her in my arms placing my forehead against hers.

"I'm sorry I hurt you by saying some of the things I did"

She looked up at me her eyes moist.

"Babe if I have to tell you ten times every day for the rest of my life then I will, I love you, only you, and I was stupid to try to think I was protecting myself and you. Please forgive me and believe in me?"

"I do, it's just that I've had to protect my heart for so long it's become second nature to

be cautious"

"Don't be cautious let yourself be loved as you are meant to be"

I slowly eased the T-shirt up and over her head allowing my fingers to tease along the lace bra over her breasts, as my mouth moved to feel the softness of each breast; my hand undid the clasp at her back allowing me full access with both my mouth and hand. Her neck arched back and her hands massaged my scalp. Who knew that my scalp was such an erogenous place, her sighs and whispers fed my desire and my erection became firmer and was demanding attention. I lifted her and placed her on the chaise longue in the room so that she was sitting on the arm. My hands unbuttoned her jeans and with her briefs eased them down her legs and off, standing between her legs I returned to her mouth demanding attention. We dueled tongues exploring each other's mouths, her hands now nipping and rubbing at my own nipples as her hands roamed under my shirt. I broke the kiss and lifted the offending shirt over my head returning my mouth to her nipples to bring them to a hard peak. As she placed her hands at the waist of my cargos I pulled them away.

"Not yet, let me show you how much I love you"

From her breasts I moved down her stomach, feeling the muscles in her abdomen contract as she lent back. I gently lowered her backwards so that her shoulders were resting on the seat and spread her legs to allow me better access; at first there was a hint of panic.

"Do you trust me?"  
"Yes"

"I won't do anything to hurt you or make you uncomfortable, tell me to stop and I will"

She nodded and I felt her body relax, with her ass over the arm of the chaise longue I first used my fingers to stroke her slit and my mouth to tease between her curls, she was so wet and so ready, her body writhed and I held her still with a hand on her hips, moving my mouth and tongue to enter her wetness with a nip and massage to her clit I could feel her walls tighten onto me. Her screams accompanied the orgasm that tore through her and I gently moved my tongue to extend the pleasure she was feeling. As her breathing calmed I lent over her again to feed on her firm soft breasts and my hand now did the work to arouse her once more. Her skin was now so sensitized to my ministrations, her pleads and shouts evoked a primal need inside of me. I would normally ensure a woman at least three orgasms before I entered them, but I was losing all self-control.

"I need to come inside of you"

With that I shucked my cargos and plunged to the hilt inside of her, the euphoric feel was paralyzing and I stilled, for me to gain what little control I had, and for her to accommodate my size. Then with my hands on her hips I began the movement that would enable me to fulfill my release. I controlled all of the movement and when I felt my sacs expand and my muscles vibrate I rubbed and nipped her clit to ensure she came with me.

"Come with me Babe"

A last deep hard thrust and I felt my sperm being released, my orgasm perpetuated by the vice like grip her muscles applied as they drew me in with their contractions. My shouts deafened out her scream, but when I heard my name, Carlos, reverberate around the room, that incited my orgasm to inflame. Our orgasms fed off each other and once I felt her ripples slow down I lifted her and sank to the floor holding her to me, still inside her. Our hearts were racing and breaths were panting. A sheen of sweat covered our skin.

"God, Babe, I've never felt like that before, only you, you are my undoing mi amante"

Steph looked up into my eyes.

"I have never ever experienced anything like that before either "

How on earth had I been so stupid to keep pushing her away?

We continued to hold each other until I felt Steph shiver slightly, as I moved I almost whimpered at the loss of being inside of her. I lifted her into the bathroom and began to fill the bath adding fragranced bath salts, when the tub was full; I lifted and placed her into the water.

"Relax while I shower"

Thirty minutes later I had joggers on and was knelt beside the bath using a soapy sponge to caress and stroke her skin. She was so beautiful as she lay with her eyes closed, relaxed in the soapy water. Then as the water cooled down, I lifted her out into the shower to rinse off the soap. She turned and looked me in the eyes.

"Thank you for taking care of me"

We slept holding each other both of us enjoying a deep dream free night.


	5. Chapter 9 & 10

Chapter 9

I awoke feeling happy and contented, the day was just beginning to lighten so it must have been earlier than I realized, but I felt replenished and ready for the day. I lifted my eyes to the face of the man I loved and who loved me. His hair had fallen over his face and I had to resist sweeping it away, I had never come across this situation, when I was awake and he was still asleep, I wanted to feel the intimacy of that touch, as I knew he often tucked my curls behind my ear, was his touching me a way of him showing intimacy to me? His skin was relaxed, the lines that would appear, depending on his moods were smooth, he looked younger and without a care in the world. He was beautiful, if that is a word to describe a man, with the shadow of growth on his face and the definition of his cheeks, nose and chin and that beautiful mouth that was as magical as his hands. I couldn't resist I moved my lips across his, then across to his ear and sucked on his lobe whilst my hands gently moved from his shoulders down his chest feeling the contours of his muscles, he had no need of modesty because to me he was perfect. I felt a slight movement and looked to see his lips turn up in a smile. I continued my exploration down to the beginning of the hair on his hips, as it seemed to draw me, my mouth followed tracing his nipples and biting slightly, French kissing his belly button and moving even further down. I moved my body to below his hips and began to move the sheet that had gathered, my hands cupping and massaging his sacs whilst my tongue lathed at his already hard erection. My hands stroked and teased, while my mouth explored, sucking in the skin on his hips at the side of his shaft to leave a mark. Carlos had been very still and quiet as though savoring the moment, now he groaned out loud and arched his hips up, as if inviting me to continue. I took his shaft into my mouth as deep as I could, using my tongue and teeth as I moved up and down, the lower part received the force of a hand around it, I moaned from my chest, the vibration travelling out through my mouth. His moans got louder and his hands slid into my curls as I increased the movement, I could feel the tightening in his sacs, his hands tightening in my hair and with one last thrust of his hips I felt the eruption of his sperm as it entered my mouth and his orgasm as it rolled through him. I swallowed until all his liquid had gone, savoring the tangy, salty taste left in my mouth. As I lifted my head Carlos pulled my body up to lay on his, our mouths dancing and tongues delving, his taste now in both our mouths, god I was so wet and turned on. The passion continued with hands in each other's hair to change the angle and hold us tightly together. In one move he turned me on my back and with his hips between mine I felt his erection close to my opening. I moaned into his mouth and writhed my body for him to enter me, my hand moved his shaft across my wet folds, and then I raised my hips and wrapped him with my legs, my ankles crossed below his ass. Slowly he deepened within me, I savored every inch as it reached my womb and using my calf muscles encouraged him to go faster.

"Faster, deeper"

"Harder, hotter"

That is what he gave me, as muscles began to vibrate and my back arched in anticipation, his hand nipped and alternated rubbing on my already swollen clit, and I repeated his mantra to him.

"Come with me"

With the second thrust, my world fell into the abyss, every muscle contracting and sensations running from my toes to my head, I screamed out his name until there were stars in my eyes and my heart felt ready to explode. He rode out my orgasm and turning on his back brought my body over him, nuzzling my hair, with his hands on my head and my back, holding me close to him.

"I love you even more Babe and not because of the lovemaking, I feel a connection that I don't want to give up"

I had tears in my eyes at that statement, was this really happening? I sighed,

"I don't want to leave here, I want to stay in your arms like this"

"I know, but unless you want Ram and Hector in here with us I need to get up, take your time and I'll go get breakfast sorted"

I watched his naked ass cross the room; he stopped and turned, looking back at me.

"Your ass is even better to look at"

With a laugh I threw a pillow at him. After he showered and dressed I got up out of the bed and peaked through the window, wow, the sea was calm and gentle, lapping onto the shore of white sand, the sun was shining and the sky was clear and blue. Time to get going, so with shorts and a strappy top over a bikini I literally danced down the stairs into the kitchen. Both Hector and Ram looked up at my exuberant entry and Hector got up to hug me.

"Buenos días hermana"

"Buenos días hermano"

"Breakfast is served Babe"

I sat down to an omelet that covered my plate and was full to the brim with cheese and peppers and probably other things I didn't recognize, Ram put a coffee next to me and that was me satisfied for the time being. I looked up to see three men grinning at me, and two sitting back in their chairs.

"Don't mind them Estefania, I enjoy listening to you"

Oops, forgot about that, I looked down at my plate feeling the color rise up on my cheeks, then focused on eating and being quiet.

"That tasted amazing, I could wake up to that every morning"

"So could I Babe"

I smiled, hoping only I understood what he was referring to, Hector laughed and Ram looked puzzled as we cleared and tidied up. Hector hooked his arm through mine and led me to the sunroom where computers had been set on desks against the back wall.

"Whatever you're doing keep doing it. I've never see him so happy before"

Definitely time to divert that discussion.

"OK Hector what do we have?"

"Search results from Silvio for you to do magic on, Ranger talk to Juan"

I made myself comfortable in a soft-pillowed whicker chair, legs under me and began reading the files. After reading both I sat on the floor and spread the papers out in front of me. Hector handed me a bright pink highlighter pen, he knows me so well. The searches were on Beatrice Lang and Charlotte Rains and were detailed as per normal from Silvio. Each one gave the reader a sense of who these women were and their history. I tried to find anything that they had in common and came up with nothing; in fact there was so much nothing it had my spidey senses tingling. I picked up a pen and pad; dividing the sheet into three columns I wrote their names at the top of columns 2 and 3. In the first column I wrote the information I wanted for each woman, things that Silvio had found and things I needed to find. After an hour I moved away from Silvio's paper work and logged into a laptop, I accessed archived newspaper articles and church news letters, at one stage I even asked Carlos for the name of the church his grandmother had attended and added that, I searched for their parents names and a combination of their names including Hungarian translations. I delved into the register for the Burg at the time my Grandmother had said she had known Beatrice. With so many searches running I stood up stretching and headed for the kitchen for a drink and food. Carlos was at the table on his laptop and phone at the same time, he moved his chair back and pulled me onto his lap while still talking. I could hear Tanks voice coming from the phone.

"When you have more get back to me"

Still no phone manners!

"How's your search going?"

"Going, I'll tell you later when they finish and I can analyze them, what was the news from Juan and Tank?"

"A few things from Juan in Miami, first the investigators determined sabotage on the plane, so Juan has a team going through video footage at the airport and cars, people seen there. The stakeout at the house came up with no movement at all. Juan has spoken with some of our aunts who might have attended functions with Abuela Rosa and seen this woman but nothing so far; he plans on visiting the church this evening to talk with some of the older congregation. Now for Trenton, both your mother and Morelli have been phoning the office demanding to know where you are, Tank has just repeated that you left town on a job that had nothing to do with us, no one's put together the plane crash with you, though they knew I was onboard"

"Oh well I'll have to call on my parents tomorrow and maybe give Morelli a call"

"Lunch Babe?"

"Please I'm starving"

"I have a special treat, you won't need anything on your feet"

With that strange comment he picked up a basket and holding my hand led me through the sunroom and down onto a decking area. We didn't stop there, which is where I thought we were heading, instead we continued to the end of the yard and through a gate onto the beach. We walked only a few yards to the left where Carlos put the basket down and got out a blanket, with the blanket spread on the sand I sat down cross legged while Carlos sat opposite me and proceeded to place containers between us.

"I haven't had a picnic on the beach for years, in fact since I was a kid"

"Good I'm glad, maybe a memory for us then"

The food was delicious and contained lots of items to pick up and eat, vegetable rolls, tiny sandwiches, Cranberry Crostini, Nut and Cheese Gougères, Pork Rind Oyster Snacks, Nachos, Mozzarella sticks, cheese and fruit. I loved every bite spending a lot of my time feeding Carlos while he fed me.

"I enjoyed that and you made it made it feel special, thank you"

"Babe you are special and you make something as simple as eating lunch special, thank you"

We tidied everything back into the basket and as we got to the back gate I took off running toward the sea. I was laughing as I realized Carlos was behind me, laughing as well, but I got to the edge of the water before he caught me from behind. He swept me off my feet and swung me around before putting me down. I stepped back onto dry sand and fell back, to then lie down on the sand. Carlos knelt down behind me at my head and holding my head gave a very passionate kiss, upside down? He pulled his head up and looked into my eyes.

"Love you Babe, you light up my life, you make anything special"

"I love you too, and it's only special because you are with me"

A quick kiss on the forehead and with his hands under my armpits he lifted me to my feet. It was time to get back to my work.

The searches had all finished when I got back so I moved furniture and started to place the papers around me on the floor. I'd got some interesting snippets of information so now I needed to look at the detail, what was that saying ah yes 'the devil is in the detail" I pulled out my pen and pad again and listed some facts from where I had highlighted the details.

Known facts

Beatrice Lang and Charlotte Rains do not exist, both their backgrounds are elaborate, but bogus.

There are enough similarities from searches to say that they are the same person playing these roles.

The woman, whom ever she may be did exist as a child and lived for a time in Trenton in the Burg.

She was catholic and white.

She wasn't born here in America.

Initially she was raised by just an adult, not sure whether this was a parent or relative.

She had no close relatives when she moved into America.

What I think/feel

She is probably Hungarian

She came to America between 1948 and 1956 and I based this on some historical notes I'd taken. Taking in the fact that she wasn't Jewish so not affected by German occupation, a major consequence of World War II was the Soviet occupation of the country in 1945, followed by a communist dictatorship in 1948. Eight years later a revolution broke out in response to this oppression in 1956. Ten days later the Soviet army crushed the uprising and the Hungarian communists were restored to lead the party-state. In the wake of defeat, 200,000 Hungarians escaped to neighboring Austria and about 38,000 found haven in the United Sates.

That put her age between 68 and 76, assuming grandma remembered their age as being 6 years old.

Her first name was Beatrice when she was in America, not too sure on that, but it felt right.

To do next list

Talk to Grandma to see if she remembers where she lived and if she went to a local school.

From above find record of house owner and if they rented it out, whom to?

If she went to a school check records if they still exist, talk to others in same class.

Check immigration records, though not sure what name was used to come in with.

Questions

Is she still alive? Where is she, what name is she using now? What does she look like?

Why Rosenbaum Bank?

Why, why, why.

Is Ranger part of her elaborate plan?

Why, why, why?

Is she a good person with good intentions or NOT, the devil?

Why me?

I cleared all my papers into files and stacked them ready to put them somewhere safe, as I did this more questions kept swirling in my head. Who is she working with, who was following me in Miami, who sabotaged the plane, are they all the same person and if she wants me to carry on and find something are we up against two opposing groups?

Now I needed to stop because I definitely was getting a headache. I roamed the house looking for someone and eventually gave up and with a bottle of water in one hand and my list in the other I walked out to a lounge chair in the shade, curling up on my side I fell asleep.

I was awoken by fingers gently caressing my face, I knew who it was, I could feel him, which might be a weird thing to say but I had always been aware of when Carlos was near and in the last few days that awareness had heightened, plus I could smell the intoxicating aroma of Bulgari and Ranger.

"Where were you, I looked for you?"

"I'm sorry Babe, I should have let you know that Hector and I were in the garage equipping the cars for tomorrow"

"S'okay"

"You seemed engrossed, how did you get on?"

My piece of paper had creased so I tried to flatten it out before handing it to him. He sat me up and then sat behind me and very quietly read what I had written. I expected questions or at least maybe a "I think you're wrong" but after he'd read it, at least twice judging be how his eyes moved back to the top, he looked at me and kissed my forehead.

"Proud of you Babe, your mind is amazing to have found this out and to think ahead, to plan"

"I've got a load of other questions that keep popping up that makes this feel like something big is going down, like who is she working with, who was following me in Miami, who sabotaged the plane, are they all the same person and if she wants me to carry on and find something are we up against two opposing groups?"

I'd rolled those questions around in my head so often I could quote myself.

"Well we certainly have our work cut out, what do you want me to do, or Hector? You can't do all of this on you own"

"I don't know, we're back to Trenton tomorrow so I suppose we need to sort that out tonight before we leave, what time are we leaving tomorrow?"

"Let's all have dinner first then sit down and look at the logistics of it all"

Carlos explained to me what the meal was that he and Hector had prepared, it was called Pescado Encocado, and was a Cuban traditional coastal dish of fish, seasoned with citrus and spices and then cooked in a sauce of cilantro, onions, tomatoes, bell peppers and coconut milk, served with brown rice and a typical Cuban salad, Ensalada Cubana, consisting of red tomatoes, onion, iceberg lettuce, radishes, garlic and white vinegar. Everything was delicious and probably very healthy, maybe I could get into healthy eating if my meals were like this? When we'd finished eating and tidying up the kitchen we moved into the sunroom, Hector and Ram drank coffee while Carlos and I had water. Carlos gave copies of my paper to each of the men as I sat down, nervous as to what they would make of it; Ram was the first to speak.

"You sure she's Catholic Steph?"

"Pretty sure, lots of behaviors from the searches to substantiate that, why?"

"Two things really, Rosenbaum Bank is a bank whose founder sympathized with the Jews and over time has become an advocate for ethnic minority groups and well, between 1941 and 1945 more than half a million Hungarian Jews – two thirds of the country's Jewish population – were killed, I'm sure many will have tried to leave the country"

"Babe Ram's the go to person for history, especially World War 2. Ram would you put together a brief report we can read that might highlight the political play from that time?"

"Sure, it was a country in upheaval for quite a while"

I knew from Grandma bits and pieces though she never really explained much to me, and my history of Hungary wasn't good, maybe as I have Hungarian blood in me I should have found out more, hell all I ever acknowledged was my Hungarian hormones, how sad is that? I was lost in thought for a minute and maybe guilt for not knowing more.

"Babe? Hector can you follow up on the entry of immigrants during the time span"

"Si, but could be like looking for needle in haystack"

"Babe you follow up with your Grandmother and other local leads, I'll work with Juan from a Rangeman perspective"

I nodded my head, where had my happy gone? The three guys continued talking but I wasn't tuned into their conversation, I was still mulling over the possibility that this had some connection to something that was basically history and seemed so removed from me, I really needed to set that right. After an hour or so I yawned loudly, excusing myself I headed upstairs. I needed to pack and sort clothes out for tomorrow, must remember to give Carlos the files and all the paperwork I'd collected on my trip, they'd be safer at Rangeman than in my apartment. When Carlos came to bed I was still awake and I think he could tell that I was a bit down with myself.

"Babe, you OK?"

"Yeah"

"I smell smoke, what's eating at you?"

"I don't know, I just feel that I took my heritage for granted"

"No you didn't, your family has never been into reflecting or taking on board where they came from"

"Yours do"

"Different culture, that's easier to embrace, and I have a larger family that still enjoys all things Cuban"

"I suppose so"

"Come here"

With that he folded me into his arms and slowly began to kiss and caress me. Our lovemaking was unhurried, sensual and tactile, prolonging the emotions and feelings that swept though me. There were only quiet murmurs and sighs and when we both felt our release, I could see a different look in his eyes, tenderness, love and devotion? We had come so far together in such a short time; I hoped that this was what we would continue to have when we moved back home and Carlos wouldn't think he'd made a mistake.

Chapter 10

I was woken by random movements from Steph, she was muttering in her sleep as her arms began to flail around her, I enclosed her in my arms holding her tightly to me and began to whisper to her in Spanish, I knew that this might calm her. In the past, many times I would break into her apartment, especially after one of her traumatic events, and find the need to calm her from a nightmare, my presence seemed to have that affect on her subconsciously, as she rarely woke. And truth be told there were times when I needed to be in her presence to help me quell some of the demons I still carried, I often woke during the night from visions of horrendous scenes encountered on missions. It was at times like those that I would seek her out, to ground myself, feel centered and as my blue-eyed angel she unknowingly had that effect on me. This time I needed her to wake up and was relieved when she calmed and her eyes began to flicker open.

"You're OK Babe, I've got you"

She grunted and avoided looking at me, must have been a bad dream.

"You want to talk about it?"

"Not really, a conglomeration of things all mixed up together"

"Get yourself dressed and organized and I'll go make us some breakfast"

Hector and Ram were already in the kitchen, Hector was making pancakes and Ram was choosing condiments to go onto the table, I poured two coffees and laced Stephs with sugar and cream. Ram and I sat down to bagels already on the table; Hector piled the pancakes onto a plate presumably for Steph.

"You told her about the car yet?"

"No Hector, I thought we could show her together, when we're ready to set off"

He laughed.

"You mean leave it till the last minute so's she can't argue"

He was probably right and I still needed to put some other things in place to ensure her safety, hopefully without her independent anger coming to the surface. Babe came in and placed her rucksack by the door and handed me a number of files.

"Can you keep these safe at Rangeman for me, I don't trust leaving them in my apartment?"

Interesting, she assumed she was going back to her apartment and I'd assumed we'd be together on seven. After last night I couldn't envisage not sleeping next to her or her being a constant in my world. A conversation we needed to have in private and that wouldn't be happening until maybe this evening, I would be sleeping next to her even if it were in that place of hers.

"Good idea Babe"

Steph was still quiet even when she ate and she hadn't eaten as much as I would have expected, she seemed anxious, and I didn't blame her, I felt the same. When all was tidy I set the alarms and closed up the house leading Steph into the garage, she stopped once inside staring at the car in front of her and frowned.

"It looks like my Nissan Pathfinder, but doesn't?"

I smiled at how perceptive she was.

"Well it is and it isn't. Al took your car into the work shop and remodeled a new one to look exactly the same as yours"

"You mean he beat up the panels and added rust?"

Her voice was beginning to rise, so I needed to take evasive moves.

"Babe the car in front of you will keep you safe, the engine will give you better acceleration to get you out of danger and the body surrounding you is bullet proof, go with this, please"

I think the magic word worked because she sighed, then looked at me.

"I don't really have much choice do I? Next time at least talk with me first. What else is there? As I'm thinking Hector must have added more if you two were in here all yesterday afternoon"

I smiled and holding her to me whispered in her ear.

"Thank you, I am sorry I didn't talk with you about it, but time was short and I need for you to be safe. I've just got you in my life and I couldn't bare it if something were to happen to you"

"OK, Hector what have you added?"

"Trackers as usual, panic button, sat nav, in car phone system and the pièce de résistance, a camera in the interior light holding that will give 360 degree views. You can pull that up on the sat nav screen if you feel you're being followed or approached"

"Does that mean Rangeman is watching my every move?"

"No Estefania, the feeds go only to Rangers and my phone through special app I make, but if panic button go off or tracker off line then alert go out, as has done in past"

Steph walked round the car then opened the door,

"Oh well I suppose it looks the same, so what else do you think you need to discuss with me?"

There was an edge to her voice, she knew me too well sometimes.

"I'd like Santos either with you or shadowing you, you were followed in Miami and a plane you were on crashed, I don't want you out there on your own"

"I can cope with Lester, but there'll be times when he'll need to stay in the background, especially if I'm trying to talk with people. Who's gonna have your back?"

All right she had a point and if I could show her that I was willing to have the same as her then I would.

"I'll have similar features on the car I drive and I'll always have one of my men with me, fair enough?"

"Yes, see that wasn't such a hard discussion to have was it?"

"Smartass"

Steph let Hector drive after a stand off in front of her car, Hector had the keys and you could see the moment when she realized she wasn't going to win. Ram and I loaded our gear into a black SUV and I drove us back to Rangeman in silence. Hector had planned on stopping for lunch just outside of Trenton so that our arrival wouldn't be construed as a coincidence. Santos would be at Stephs apartment when she arrived having already checked it out. Her plans were to spend the remainder of the afternoon there making phone calls, then head to her parents' house for dinner. I needed to catch up with my team and be up to date with the crash investigation, Cal's undercover work and aspects of the business. My arrival onto the fifth floor didn't seem to spark any more interest than usual, the men would have seen me arrive in the garage so they knew I expected a working atmosphere on the floor, Tank and Bobby were waiting outside my office so we entered and got down to business.

"Tank you first"

"Security has been real quiet, no break ins, there are a couple of clients who are after security for new businesses starting up, no contact from the FBI but I think you should talk with Cal, some interesting conversations have come his way. Juan's been in touch, evidence of tampering on the plane, pretty low tech really, but nothing from any cameras or witnesses, no prints that they could find. The insurance agents have taken over so expect a call. He also says he's found nothing down in Miami and nothing from the letters, no one remembers that woman, a lot who would, have died since, so a dead end there, he'll keep at it though"

"Bobby?"

"The new recruits seem to be turning things around, physically more able and should pass our standards next week, one still has a bit of an attitude but he's learning"

"That Hickman?"

"Yeah, but he's fast and intuitive"

"OK if that's it from you I'll bring you up to speed with what's happening now"

I explained the precautions we'd taken to keep Steph safe, informing them of Santos and Hector being with her at all times and her insistence that I do the same, Tank actually laughed at that.

"There are copies of the letters Steph was given and the searches she did with some conclusions she came to, but there are still too many questions. Ram and Hector are helping to try and fill in some of the background while Steph works it through on the streets, have a read through her files and if there's anything get back to me"

Both got up to leave, but as Tank got to the door he turned.

"You know she's got some of the best instincts I know of, don't you?

"Yeah Tank, but I have a terrible feeling something fubar is going to happen"

"You get your head outta your ass?"

I glowered at him, was I that obvious?

"Send Cal in please"

I booted up my computer and opened files that needed attention while waiting for Cal; he knocked at the door and entered, I indicated the seat across from my desk.

"Report Cal"

"I've infiltrated into a group of about five bikers who are new in town. According to them there was a request, source unknown, to come to Trenton and stir things up with some of the local gangs, cause disruption, beat a few up and cause general chaos. They think there are about twelve other men in two groups doing the same. Any communication comes through Whatsapp, which as you well know has a strong encryption on it; hell even Homeland can't break in. They reckon something's going down soon, but until they're told they don't know what and won't until the minute they have to act. Word is that the person or persons who are giving the orders are not part of any biker group, but are sympathetic to the bikers causes, which are right-wing extremists who are motivated by racist and anti-Semitic views. They also think that one of these leaders is going to play a big part of the action sometime soon"

"So this is a short term move? Do you think they are being used to create a distraction?"

"Yeah, these guys are playing around, not here for the long haul"

"Cal work the rest of this week, three nights, then take the weekend off and go back Monday, and I don't really want you to be seen here, too many visitors that may blow your cover"

"Thanks boss, I'll get anything to you as soon as I have it, secure phone?"

"I think so, no problems with the wire?"

"None"

As Cal left I put my elbows on the desk resting my chin on my joined fists, what the hell was the purpose of a distraction like that? Enough of a distraction that the Feds couldn't see through it? It was coming close to six and a quick check on Stephs trackers had her at her parents house, I'd work for an hour and then check in with Santos, I'd be with her tonight so he could go off duty. It was seven thirty when Stephs tracker showed her back at her apartment, I phoned Santos.

"Report"

"Everything quiet until about 1830, then Morelli turned up at her parents house, Steph came charging out, drove around and about for quite awhile and is now tucked up in her apartment. I'd say she's in a shit mood"

"I'm on my way, go off duty when I get there, then pick up with her tomorrow"

"Will do"

I drove over to Stephs in the Turbo and parked in the space Santos vacated, I acknowledged him with a nod then proceed up the stairs to her apartment. Should I knock or just break in, hell why spoil the habit of a lifetime. Once I'd locked the door behind me I walked in looking for her, eventually finding her in the bedroom in her thinking position, wearing shorts and one of my T-shirts, with a pillow over her head that was hanging over the foot of the bed. I walked in quietly and knelt at her head pulling the pillow off and enclosing her lips with my mouth.

"I could get used to upside down kissing, sure beats upside down pineapple cake"

"Good to know"

I wasn't going to push her to talk; she often needed time to process what had happened before she spoke.

"I had a good day until an hour ago, then it went to shit, how was your day darling?"

Not good she was pissed at something or someone.

"Fair, until I got here then it became incredible, missed you today"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to have a go at you"

"I'm here if you want to talk"

"Grandma doesn't know anything more, only that Beatrice was a constant companion for a short time, she didn't think she went to school and never went to where she lived, so basically a dead end. I got some names of other friends at the time, as least those who haven't died yet"

"Sometimes crossing things off the list makes it easier to focus on the rest"

"Yeah well my mother went and sneaked a call to Morelli when I arrived there and he had the nerve to show up. Between them they harassed me about being out of town and not telling them what I was doing, then, from my mother, I got the usual crap about settling down with Morelli, and he just sat there nodding his head like one of those god dam toys in a car. I drove around for awhile just in case he decided to ambush me here"

"So he still thinks he's a part of your life? Is he?"

"What? He can think what he likes, but I have made a choice and you mister had better like it"

With that I kissed her nose, upside down, and proceeded to tickle her on her ribs and side of her stomach. After five minutes both of us were rolling, squirming and laughing. I'd never thought before how something so simple could be so special, I'd never spent any time or energy doing that before. I stopped moving and just looked at her.

"What is it?"

"I love you Babe"

We moved into the lounge and settled onto the couch with a beer each, comfortable just watching the TV.

"I smell something burning"

"I think I'm gonna go to the bank Friday"

"Why then?"

"Well it gives me tomorrow to call at the office and see if there are any new files, do a bit more research and…"

"And what?"

"I don't want to drag this out and worry about it over the weekend"

"OK but I'd like you at Rangeman by 1600, that's 4 in the afternoon tomorrow, to put some plans in place"

"Fine by me"

I wasn't sure about the bank visit but it had to happen sooner rather than later, it was trying to make sure we had enough contingency plans in place, because where Steph was involved nothing went to plan. We were watching a film when I felt Steph relax and her breathing slow down, carefully I carried her to the bed and gently placed her in it pulling up the covers. I checked the doors and windows, turned the TV and lights off and climbed in next to her.


	6. Chapter 11 & 12

Chapter 11

I woke slowly trying to remember how I had ended up in bed, my last memory was being on the couch with Carlos watching a film, I must have fallen asleep and he'd brought me to bed. I reached over and found the other side cold but my fingers touched a piece of paper. Opening my eyes and with a smile on my face I read the message.

"Babe left you to sleep, Santos downstairs, have a good day see you at 4. Love you C"

I felt good about today until I saw a text from Morelli.

"Pinos at 1, please"

Well I suppose the sooner I got him to back off the better. I showered; shaved, buffed and moisturized leaving my hair to dry on its own, dressed in jeans and a long sleeved T-shirt I made my way downstairs. I decided today to travel with Lester; he was good company and had a way about him to chat up a couple of old folk I needed to talk to.

"Morning Lester"

"Morning Beautiful, what's on the agenda for today?"

"Well I thought we could ride together today, so which car?"

"Yours, it has all the security gizmos on it"

Lester drove to pick up some doughnuts, first to use as a peace offering for having been out of town and not telling them and second if the girls were busy eating maybe they'd keep their questions low key. We parked outside the bonds office, how the Merry Men always seemed to get a good parking space still mystified me. I picked up the box of doughnuts and went inside, Lester stayed by the door while I put the box on Connie's desk. Lula came in at that very moment, as though she could smell the doughnuts.

"Morning ladies, any new files for me?"

"Only one, probably a good job you have company with you today"

"Why, if it's a low bond they're not normally difficult?"

"Yeah well Vinnie being the sleazeball that he is, bonded out this biker guy, taking his bike to secure the bond, no history, no address but was arrested for assaulting one of the girls down on Stark"

"I heard bout that, she's a friend of Jackie's, got beaten real bad"

"Well he was seen by the cops doing it"

"Fine sign the file over and we'll see if we can even find him"

"So white girl, good vacation?"

"Not a vacation Lula, I was helping a friend out"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah"

"So are we gonna go get this woman beater?"

"Not yet Lula I need to find him first and I've a couple of people to talk to this morning"

"Humph, that you dissing me off?"

"No, maybe tomorrow afternoon, OK?"

"Maybe, 'pends what plans I got"

I was so not in the mood for Lula to be off handed with me. I left the office with Lester following and we got into the car, I punched in the address we needed to go to into the sat nav, maybe the changes to this car weren't too bad. Lucky for me the two elderly folk my Grandma had come up with were both living in the same retirement home, it was by a park and looked to have been an old manor house. Once through the door, which entailed buzzing and being let in, the receptionist led us into a lounge area to meet up with Mr. and Mrs. Watkins, yeah they'd been childhood sweethearts forever and eventually got themselves married, though Grandma seemed to think the arrival of their daughter six months later might have been the reason. Regardless I thought that it was still sweet that they could live together and be looked after. Lester and I went over and sat opposite them and I introduced us as friends of Edna's.

"My Grandmother thought you might be able to help find an old friend of hers"

OK just a little white lie.

"Her name was Beatrice and she was good friends with Grandma, but she up and left. Can you remember her?"

"Friends with Edna?"

"Yes, but only for a short time"

"Pretty little thing?"

"Kenny!"

"Hell Vera, it was seventy years ago"

"You remember her then?"

"I do, strange girl, real quiet, especially around Edna, she's mad now like she was when she were a young 'un, marriage sure as hell calmed her down"

I could imagine that, I was probably more like Grandma than my mother. Vera chirped up again.

"I don't remember her"

"Well you only had eyes for me even then"

"Oh Kenny, you old hound dog"

"Kenny, what can you tell me about Beatrice?"

"Very long dark hair, quiet like I said, but she didn't say a lot 'cos I don't think she were all that good with speaking, had a bit of an accent when she did. I was a couple of years older so I noticed things like that"

"You know where she lived, or who with?"

"Adeline Street, one over from mine, I once walked over with her after we'd met up with Edna. Not sure where exactly, she kind of shrugged me away at the end of the street. Don't know who lived at the house, she didn't say"

"She go to school with you?"

"Not ours, sorry that's all I remember"

"You've both been a great help, thank you, if you do remember anything else here's a card with my phone number on"

"OK lass, good luck, say hi to Edna for us"

We left the home and got back in the car, I was busy thinking how to now use the address to find occupants from seventy years ago.

"Beautiful it's another piece of the puzzle, we'll work it and see what comes up. Where to now?"

"I have to meet Joe at Pinos, can you give me a little space?"

"Sure, Steph are you and Ranger, you know?"

"Yeah I think we're on the same page"

"Glad to hear"

Morelli was already waiting for me when I walked into Pinos at a booth we would normally sit at, Lester gave me five minutes then came in to sit at the bar, if Morelli noticed he didn't let it show.

"Cupcake, thanks for coming"

"Joe can you please not call me that"

"Why not?"

"Because it comes from an event I'd sooner forget"

"As long as I live I won't forget that evening"

I just gave him a look and picked up the menu, I wasn't feeling overly hungry.

"Cu.. Err Steph I wanted to talk with you, to get us back in synch, I've missed you"

"Sorry Joe but I don't think I want that anymore"

"What? But you're my fiancé"

"I am not your fiancé, we haven't spoken for weeks"

"That's because we've both been busy"

"Joe when we were together all we did was argue"

"We're good in bed"

"Not a deal breaker Joe, you were always trying to get me to change, my job, how I behaved, hell even how I lived"

"That's not true, I'm only thinking about you"

"No Joe you were thinking about you and what you wanted, marriage, dinner on the table and children"

"Isn't that what all girls want?"

"Not me Joe"

"That's not true, I'm sure you'll come around to the idea"

"Joe!"

"Alright then I'll stop pushing you into those things and you'll see we can be good together"

"No Joe, it's over, I'm over you. I've appreciated the time away from you, because it made me realize that as a couple it wasn't good enough for me"

"I don't think you're thinking straight"

"I am Joe, I want to stay friends but nothing more"

"Who's got to you?"

"No one has, this is my choice"

"It's Manoso isn't it?"

"No, he has nothing to do with how I feel about you. Hell I've been out of town"

At this point I think Joe realized he wasn't going to get his own way. His eyes had gone cold, his face was pinched and his hands were sweeping through his hair. Yeah definitely getting a mad on.

"I won't give you up Steph, I'll fight for you"

"No one owns me Joe, especially not you"

I made to get up and bent to pick up my bag, as I came around the table he grabbed hold of my arm stopping me.

"Steph I won't give up, everyone knows you and me are meant to be married, hell your mother, mine the Burg, even Grandma Bella"

"Joe their opinions aren't important it's not about them, it's about you and me. You once said there was you and there was me, but there just wasn't an us. Move on Joe, find someone who can give you what you want, because it isn't me"

I looked down at my arm, surely he could see that I was serious, surely he could see from my face that I wasn't going to let him man handle me? Joe was still staring at me and I could feel the tension through his grip. He looked down at my arm and tried to pull me out of the restaurant with him. I stood my ground and held back the emotions swirling inside of me. I really didn't trust him not to do something stupid. Would he hurt me? His face came up to look at me and a shiver ran through me, but then after a moment of trying to stare me out, he suddenly released my arm as if it were burning him, taking advantage I made a hurried exit out of the restaurant. My car beeped open so I got into the drivers seat and locked the door. Morelli had followed me out, the look of anger on his face had changed into one of resolve, and he tried pulling on the door, yanking on the handle, then he turned away and walked off toward the back parking lot. I had tears in my eyes and didn't even hear Lester open the door; with a gentle shove he moved me across the seat and started the engine then drove away. I wasn't aware of where we were going, I think that I was just numb, not that I should have been surprised by Joe, I suppose we'd both let our unhealthy relationship coast along without really thinking where it would lead, and was I just using Joe because he was there when I needed him, because I thought he was safe and wouldn't hurt me? Maybe, but the feelings I had for Carlos were so much more, deeper, richer, hell even the sex, which wasn't everything in our relationship, was more profound than I had ever experienced with Joe. The car came to a stop and I looked out through the windscreen onto a little café that sat on the banks of the river, with a small patio outside. I looked at Lester and he gave me a small nod. As I looked again there was Carlos waiting by the entrance. I opened the car door walking slowly toward him as he held open his arms. I collapsed into him and clung to him as the tears I'd held in flowed down my cheeks.

"Hush querida, I've got you"

I couldn't say anything. He was always there when I needed him. As my tears subsided I smiled up at him

"I'm fine, just a bit shell shocked, I didn't expect Joe to react like he did"

"He'll get over it, give him time"

I nodded numbly and followed him to sit at a small table overlooking the water. We ate outside, small tasters were brought out and I probably ate more than I thought, Carlos explained what each dish was, though I didn't really remember. I was thankful that he didn't insist that I repeat the conversation I'd had with Morelli. When we finished he drove me in his SUV back to Rangeman.

"Do you mind if I go get a shower before the meeting?"

"Of course not, what's mine is yours and seven is always there for you"

I thought about that as I went up in the elevator, I'd stayed on seven before, but I always left, until the next time. I left, my decision, I left, not because he told me to go. I left, had I walked away from him? Had I read the signs wrong? It didn't really matter now, because I was here now. I felt much better after a shower and after thinking, dressed in clean jeans and a light jumper I went back down to five and into Carlos's office. He looked up at me as I walked up to him, I knelt between his legs I put everything I had to give him a passionate kiss, and pulling away I whispered.

"I love you so much, you make me complete"

He held my face in his hands, looking into my eyes he whispered.

"Te amo con todo mi corazón, I love you with all my heart"

We were interrupted by a very loud knock on the door and Lester came in grinning, Carlos got up, pulling me to his feet and left the room, leaving me alone with Lester. I walked up to Lester and gave him a hug.

"Thank you Lester for getting Carlos for me"

"De nada, I knew you needed him to ground you, just like he needs you. You're good for each other"

We sat in the couch while Carlos returned with Bobby, Tank, Hector and Ram. Mugs of coffee were handed out and everyone made them selves comfortable. As I was sat next to Carlos I took his hand in mine and smiled, yes I felt grounded now, complete. Carlos took charge of the meeting and it was immediately business as usual.

"Let's start with reports, Ram"

"The history of Hungary during the World War 2 is complicated so I'll try to keep it minimal. Hungarian troops took part in the Nazi invasion and partition of Yugoslavia in 1941. In 42 they conducted brutal anti-Partisan raids and killed over 4,000 civilians, mostly Serbs and Jews. In 43 the Hungarian government investigated the massacres and the leaders responsible were sentenced to death. There was a mass and systematic revenge execution of ethnic Hungarians: around 40,000 civilians were tortured and killed between October 1944 and May 1945. Hitler realized Hungary's intention to make peace with the Allies, so Germany invaded Hungary in 1944 placing their own Nazi-leaning Hungarian Arrow-Cross party in power. With the Soviet army approaching, a puppet Hungarian-Nazi regime was ruling Hungary. Between 41 and 45 more than half a million Hungarian Jews – two thirds of the country's Jewish population – were killed. In Hungary, the lives of Jews were restricted in terms of whom they could marry and what jobs they could do, but for the most part they were surviving. That changed radically when Hitler sent German troops to occupy Hungary in 44. In less than two months more than 430,000 Jews and other minorities had been transported to Auschwitz. The only Jews left in the country were in Budapest, where they were later executed by members of the Arrow Cross during the siege of Budapest in 44 and ended the Nazi occupation. An estimated 120,000 people died through fighting, starvation and sickness, with the death toll shared equally between defending troops (German and Hungarian), attacking troops (Russian and Romanian) and civilians. Half a million Hungarians were transported to Soviet labor camps and tens of thousands of women and girls were raped. However there were other threats and the gendarmerie decided to do their own redistribution of wealth and they went into Jewish homes and stole, looted, demanded valuables beating up anyone who refused. The gendarmes collected rich people, who were beaten and literally stripped publicly of their clothes; if it wasn't the gendarmes then it was the Germans. After the war, many leaders were captured and tried for war crimes."

I sat there reeling from the information Ram gave us, as I looked around I realized that maybe the others had a better idea than I did.

"So the Jews had the Nazis, their own Hungarian power crazed leaders, the gendarmes and the Russians against them within what a five year period?"

"Yes, it's a complex piece of history"

"My Grandmother has never ever mentioned any of this, but she's Catholic and I'm sure that woman is catholic"

"I don't know how she fits in Steph"

"Maybe I need to find out from Grandma why her family came here. So how does all this help?"

"Another piece of the puzzle Babe"

How could people do that to each other, because of their religion, or because they were rich, but I suppose it was still happening now, racism was all around us, hell even my Dad was racist if you weren't Italian. Were the documents showing war crimes, or money that had been stolen?

"Hector, report"

"Estefania got a street name but a lot of records not always public and because paper not there now. Still going through immigration but there are so many mothers with daughters"

"No one really knows who she lived with either, could have been her father or a relative"

Carlos looked at me and squeezed my hand.

"Babe we'll work it out, maybe the safety deposit box holds the answers, so let's plan for tomorrow. Santos you stay as close to Steph as possible and let's have someone already inside the bank, Tank?"

"Vince is probably the better one to use, maybe have Sandor with him"

"OK, Babe what time?"

"10.30? Time for it to be open but after the first mad rush?"

"Will you wear a wire please?"

"Yes, but can I have an ear bud so if something happens out of my sight I'll know about it?"

"Good idea, Hector can you set that up for Steph and upgrade a panic button and some trackers to go on her person"

"Anything else, Tank?"

"I'll put a man at the front and one at each exit, we have cameras opposite so we can monitor the outside as well"

"Babe you OK with this?

"Yeah, the sooner it's over the better"

"Meet in the garage at 1000, suited up, dismissed"

I stood up almost in a daze and turned to Carlos.

"You have the key?"

"It's upstairs in the safe, come on I think it's time to relax and I have a present for you"

Mmm, knowing me he'd probably been to my apartment and rescued my gun from the cookie jar. We entered the apartment and while Carlos went to get the key from the safe I sat waiting on the couch. I emptied my bag on my knee and started to sort out any rubbish. When he returned I'd just binned the crap that I'd collected over the last few months into the waste bin. He handed me a large white box, I shook it but it didn't rattle, too big for jewelry or even a gun, slowly I removed the lid and folded back the tissue paper. Leather? I unfolded the leather to reveal a beautiful black leather coat.

"Put it on"

It fit perfectly, coming in slightly at the waist and ending mid thigh.

"It's not as light as I thought it would be?"

"It's especially made for you"  
"Why?"

"A very good friend of mine sent it for me to give to you, the outside is a thin leather, but inside the lining is a form of Kevlar, very new technology and he's in on it"

"Wow, it's beautiful, stylish and protects me, just like you"

As I said this I circled my arms around his waist.

"If I could wrap myself around you and protect you all the time I would, but I think this will do a good enough job, just don't let on to anyone what it is"

I removed the coat looking at the lining, it was tightly woven and felt slightly rough but if you didn't know what it was you'd never realize.

"Thank you, and your friend, it's perfect"

"You're worth it"

"Why did this friend give it to you for me?"

"Because even he realized how much you meant to me and he's well aware of some of the scrapes you get into"

That caused my cheeks to flush; did everyone see how we were when together except us? I needed to change the conversation, and quickly.

"OK it must be time to eat, I'm hungry"

As if on queue my stomach rumbled and Carlos laughed. We found food in the kitchen that Ella had left, along with a small domed plate with my name on it, did I tell you how much I love Ella. Our meal was roasted vegetables and fish with a spicey sauce served with brown rice and warm bread. She'd even provided a small knob of butter for me; my desert was blackcurrant cheesecake with fresh cream. By the time I had finished eating I was full up, but helped clear the dishes before disappearing into the bathroom to take a shower. I'd put the cosmetics I needed out ready to use and had a towel within reach. As I stepped into the water and held my face up to the spray I felt Carlos come in behind me. Neither of us said a word. He lathered up a sponge and in slow circles began to wash my shoulders then down my arms, my back, over my ass and down my legs, at this stage I had leaned my hands against the wall to keep me upright, before I fell down. Instead of turning me around he pulled my back up against his chest, his erection held between us at the bottom of my back, the sponge now moved across my clavicles, down encircling my breast to my stomach and hips. He bent down and continued to soap my thighs, knees and feet. By the time he had completed the cleaning I was humming with desire for his touch in other places. The sponge hit the floor and with soapy hands he moved them down from my stomach to between my legs through my hair and began massaging my core. I tried to open myself but couldn't balance; Carlos realized this and using his fore arm lifted my leg at the thigh placing my foot onto the shelf.

"Bend over to your foot on the shelf, trust me querida" I did a he asked, my face against my calf, feeling totally exposed, but not nervous as his hand and mouth explored my opening from a crouched position behind me. I felt the muscles in my legs tighten as the warmth began to seep though me, with one hand he moved one of my hands to my breast.

"Move with me"

His hand held mine as I massaged my breast

"Show me how you like it"

I tweaked and pulled on each breast causing the nipples to stand out hard while his tongue now entered my opening.

"Now show me how you like to be touched here"

He brought one hand to rest over my clit and with his hand above mine I slowly started to rub against it in circles. As his tongue increased its motion so did my hand until I could feel my inner core begin to spasm, a response to arch my back was controlled by my position, a finger inside pushing against my sweet spot had my inners convulsing and me screaming out Carlos's name.

"Beautiful"

Carlos stood up and moving his shaft between my legs pushed it into me. He was folded over my back and I was folded down to my leg, he had encircled my arms and I couldn't move, Carlos was in complete control, at one time I would have hated this, but here and now I felt cocooned. The movement of his hips dictated the pace.

"Faster, harder"

And he did, slamming into me to the hilt, my breath was shortening and my moans at each slam became louder, his fingers at my clit pinched hard.

"Come with me querida"

With that my muscles totally erupted and I felt a last push before he shouted my name. I couldn't get my breath, either because of the wave of my orgasm throughout my entire body or due to my upper body being restricted, stars crossed my vision until there was no more. When I came to I was wrapped in a towel cradled in Carlos's arms, my body still quivering from the after effects, being gently rocked.

"What happened?"

"You passed out"

"Why?"

"It's called la petite mort, caused by an extreme orgasm"

"I've heard of it but never been close to it, god Carlos that was so intense"

"Bueno, how are you feeling now?"

"Relaxed and tired"

"Good, let's get you into bed"

As my head hit the pillow I was asleep.

Chapter 12

The morning had me waking up to kisses from Carlos on my face and my neck.

"My turn to give you a wake up call"

He made love to me, slow and lazy, with quiet tones and sensual movements, every girls dream come true. As I lay in his arms afterwards I thought about the morning ahead and slowly the calmness that Carlos had elicited from our lovemaking was replaced with dread. I sat up slowly, not wanting him to be aware of my change of mood.

"I'm going in the shower, alone"

"I'll get you some breakfast, what are you hungry for?"

"Maybe just some toast or yoghurt"

Without a backward glance I quickly showered, braided my hair and dressed in conservative grey trousers and a pale blue shirt. Flat black boots suited my mood.

Carlos was his in black Rangeman cargos and T-shirt, cat boots and fully dressed, no doubt two guns and two knives.

"Babe you look pale, are you alright?"

"I feel on edge, my spidey senses are making me nauseous, but I'll work through it, I'll be OK, I can't eat anything, maybe a coffee?"

I drank my coffee stood up, I couldn't sit down and was struggling not to start pacing, Carlos wrapped his arms around me from behind, with his hands splayed over my stomach.

"Breathe with me Babe"

Feeling his chest move, I slowed my breathing to match his, in through the mouth and out through the nose until I seemed calmer, maybe outwardly I was, but not inside.

He helped me on with my new jacket, placed my bag over my head to fall against my stomach.

"All ready?"

"Yes, the key is in the front pouch along with my id"

"Good let's go"

I was glad the elevator went straight down to the garage; I didn't look at the men ready to go. Hector was there and gave me a necklace that was really a tracker, a panic button the size of a dime that went into my trouser pocket and a mic that I clipped under my shirt tucked into my bra. I was set to go. Lester came up to me and holding me tight he kissed my head.

"Everything will be fine Beautiful"

Carlos came and took me in his arms giving me a long slow kiss.

"Hurry back, I love you and miss you already"

"Love you too"

With that said I got into a black SUV with Lester and we drove away.


	7. Chapter 13 & 14

Chapter 13

I watched as my Babe left the garage followed by the team of men on guard duty, she had been so nervous that I was feeling it as well. Tank and I went to my office where Hector had set up a bank of monitors so we could observe and listen to events as they unfolded. I watched silently as Stephs tracker moved along the roads toward the bank. We'd organized for one of our cars to be parked in front of the bank and for it to pull out to enable Santos easy parking. So far everything seemed to be as expected from the external feeds from cameras. As Steph moved into the bank we both let out a breath we didn't know we were holding.

"She'll be fine"

I didn't answer.

The tracker slowed to a stand still and we heard Steph ask to access the safety deposit boxes, then she was on the move again.

Then all hell broke lose. The first thing to happen was my secure phone going off, it was Cal.

"Calls gone out, all bikers are moving saying this is it, don't know where, so I'm following along"

"Be careful Cal and keep in touch, I'll link your wire here to my office"

As Tank was doing that, there was a rumble through the floor, a loud roar and the high pitched sound of alarms starting to go off, the electrical supply failed putting the place into darkness, even the computer screens went dead. As we reached the door my phone emitted the alert from the panic button Santos had on him. The emergency generator kicked in but my first instinct was to get to the control room. Hal was there.

"All operations diverted through to Miami, surveillance teams following emergency protocols, all personnel being evacuated, emergency services on route, all systems rerouted to safe building and hard drive content being transferred, ready to lock all systems sir. I'm sorry but we seem to have lost any connection to Steph. Here's your mic and bud for comms boss"

"Thanks Hal, finish and then head down, do we know where the explosion came from?"

"Ground floor boss, but no further information"

Steph, I needed to know that she was all right but with this cluster fuck going on I was struggling. We moved down the staircase and through the emergency exit to the front of the building, smoke was coming from the ground floor entrance, I grabbed hold of Tank and was almost pleading.

"Tank, Steph?"

"We lost everything from Steph and Santos when the explosion went off. I know Cal is at the bank because that's where those bikers ended up to hold a demonstration of all things, he says the place is swarming with FBI and police, and can't get near"

At that moment I felt like someone had punched me in the back, I dropped to one knee holding my chest.

"Carlos are you in pain do I need to get the EMTs, what's wrong?"

I stood up, what the hell just happened to me? Did I have a panic attack? My breathing was fine and my heart rate normal, not a heart attack.

"I don't know, I'm fine now, let's get us some answers Tank"

It took the fire department an hour to say that there was no fire to contain and then another hour for an inspector to say there was no structural damage, eventually we were allowed into the building. The entrance and lobby were a mess with walls blown and glass smashed, rooms along the corridor looked even worse and as we walked further in it was obvious which room was the site of the blast, but gave no indication of the cause. By now Lester was reported to be at the hospital having been beaten up by the demonstrators outside of the bank, so I sent Bobby to support him. The whole street the bank was on had been cordoned off with no one allowed access, Cal reported a lot of black cars, FBI and police going in and out, but no sighting of Steph. Everyone from inside the bank had been sent out onto the streets, so even our men who were inside had no access to what was going on. Two of our patrol cars had diverted to the street but even they couldn't get near. Hector couldn't get Stephs tracker back on line, and there was nothing from the wire or the panic button. I tried to contact Morelli, but no answer so with nothing to lose I called Eddie.

"Eddie speaking"

"I can't find Steph"

"Diner down from bonds office ten minutes"

"Tank can you get the men back in and find out what the hell happened, keep it in house I don't want the police or FBI inside or knowing the cause, if necessary lie and say a gas appliance exploded, talk to Juan and leave the emergency protocol in place for now, keep the core team here and set up surveillance routines, ask Luis to bring in a team to clear the garage so we can get cars out, I have to meet with Eddie"

"Eddie, as in Stephs police friend?"

"Yes, I need to find out what's going on"

I hailed a taxi seeing as how the explosion had dropped debris into the garage, blocking cars from leaving, and I was impatient to get to the diner. Eddie was sat nursing a coffee as I slid into a seat opposite to him.  
"Eddie?"

"Christ Ranger it's a mess"

"Explain"

"Apparently there was a sting timed to go down at that Rosenbaum Bank this morning, a joint task force, Trenton PD with FBI, Morelli was part of the team. They've been keeping an eye on this group of bikers that moved in. Called them a radical group, an extreme right wing group. Apparently they had a snitch that gave them information that a woman who was one of the leaders was going to set a bomb off at the bank, so the teams were in place. When the demonstration hit people were coming into the bank to get off the streets. Ranger they arrested Steph, said they had evidence that she was the bomber and that she'd taken out another target. She was hurt in the take down, but I'm not sure how bad, but she was unconscious, no EMTs called. The FBI took her and I don't know where she is. She wouldn't do anything like that they must be nuts to think that"

"Eddie, calm down, where's Morelli?"

"Not sure, but he didn't go with them when they arrested her, in fact he's been acting real strange, won't talk to anyone. Ranger they charged her with treason and instigation of a demonstration by a radical group, what the hell are we going to do?"

"Eddie I trust you, because I know you'll help Steph, here's a secure phone use it and talk with Tank and tell him anything you think might be important. Now we have to work on this without anyone knowing, I don't know who to trust on the PD other than you and I'm not sure about the agents that were there"

"OK I can do that, what do you need?"

"Names of the agents involved, the snitch, PD who were involved in the operation, what they think they know. But Eddie I have to find Steph"

"OK I'll see what I can do, I'll also call at Stephs parents and see if Morelli told them anything, I gotta go or someone's gonna notice I'm missing, just get her out Ranger"

With that Edie left leaving me looking at a cold coffee. If the FBI had charged her with treason there were only a few places they would take female prisoners, god please let her be all right. By the time I arrived back at Rangeman Tank was fielding the police at the front door, I wandered over to listen to the conversation.

"We hear a bomb went off here earlier"

"Nah, just a gas explosion"

"Well we have information that an activist got a bomb into the building"

"Not happened, so maybe your informant got it wrong, who was your snitch anyway?"

"Ongoing investigation, you gonna let us in?"

"No, you got the wrong information"

Tank turned effectively bringing the conversation to a close. I stepped through the door pleased to see two men guarding it; I nodded to them and followed Tank up the stairs to five and into his office. The core team was already there plus Ram and Hector, Santos had an arm in a sling and several bruises over his face, and I looked at him as though encouraging him to talk.

"The other guys are in worse shape, but a metal bar took me down, just a dislocated shoulder, it was absolute chaos, I mean people just started punching for the sake of it"

"Santos you know what I need to know"

'Dios primo, I said I would I protect her and I didn't, they wouldn't let me go into the vault where the boxes were, she was on her own with this manger and then the shit hit the fan"

"Tank the damage here?"

"Luckily superficial, lot of walls down but nothing structural, a few cars with dents. Protocols shut down the garage door that's why we couldn't get out. Luis said a few days to put right using a work crew, so he's on to that"

"Ram what was the cause?"

"Bomb in the collection room. Apparently a parcel came in addressed to you and it went into that room ready for scanning"

"Do we know who?"

"Well it was one of the new guys who took it in and he said that the woman looked like it was Steph"

"Which man?"

"Hickman"

"Alright we know it wasn't Steph, but the police and FBI think they have evidence that says otherwise. Ram can you see if we have any footage of the delivery and a time stamp, I doubt it occurred to anyone that she's been inside here since yesterday. Also get the team analyzing for any evidence of the bombs makeup"

"Hector can you go onto the streets and find out what the word on the street is, see if you can ferret out the snitch who gave the information to the police, but I doubt you'll find them"

"Cal find out what you can about today from the bikers, see if they know who gave them the order, maybe filch a phone for Hector to look at"

"Primo where's Steph?"

I sighed, sat back and ran my hands over my face.

"The FBI has arrested her for treason based on the possibility of a bomb at the bank, possibly here and the instigation of a demonstration by a radical group, I think they also charged her as well"

"Shit Ranger"

"Yeah, I spoke with Eddie, he's devastated, said he'd help if he can. He has my secure phone so I told him to use it to talk with you Tank. There was a sting operation waiting for her and that bastard Morelli was part of the joint task force, I'm gonna see what contacts I can get in touch with, keep me up to date"

I left the room to head into my own office, I felt physically sick, I'd let her down by not protecting her, but by god I'd get her back and then my beast would come out to play to get my revenge.

I spent the next few hours on the phone talking to people I knew through my work with the Government, most I would probably call friends as we had a lot of history together on missions, either as soldiers who had been with me or those in the background who supported the team with intel or support. Most had made the decision to move across to a desk when they felt they were too old or injured for active duty, not a direction I wanted to take. Rangeman had worked with the FBI on both local and international contracts, when the job they needed doing was an operation that needed more resources than they had, or in some cases in a place where they didn't want their name to be associated. The agent in Quantico I needed to speak to the most was a special agent in charge for violent crime, Don Matthews, but I could only leave a message for him to get back to me. Another contact was Pete Williams Senior analyst for Intelligence Collection.

"Pete here, this had better be fucking good Manoso, you know what time it is?"

"Yeah sorry Pete, I really need some help and you know I wouldn't call unless I'm out of options"

"Must be serious then, go on"

"A very good friend of mine is in trouble and I know she's been set up"  
"This the chick you were always telling us about?"

"Yes, the problem is the FBI have arrested and charged her with treason and I don't where she is"

"Shit Ranger, they're usually not wrong with stuff like that"

"Well part of their so called evidence is a bomb going off here, which did happen, but I know for sure she had nothing to do with it"

"She got an alibi?"

"Yeah, she was in bed with me at the time"

"You got your shit together with her then?"

"Yes, but not a lot of people know how close we've become. Pete you wouldn't believe the stuff that's happened to her, or me"

"OK I'll help if I can, not sure how though, what's the best way?"

"I'll send you a copy of all we have because there's something bigger going on here"  
"Use your secure access and send it to me, I'll get back to you if I have any questions, meanwhile let me know if you find out anything else. Ranger, have you thought of getting in touch with Kade?"

"Not really, didn't think he'd be able to help"

"Give him a call, maybe in the morning, you know he'd help if he could"

"Will do, and thanks"

"No problem, speak soon"

At last an ally and maybe Kade could have some ideas, he and I went way back but I'd lost touch with him. I looked at my watch, twelve hours missing, if they'd put her into a high security prison she'd go nuts being locked up on her own. I only hope she knows I'm looking for her and I will get her out, not sure how, it wasn't as if we could storm one of those places. I walked into the large conference room down the hall; the room had been set up like a war room, with all the information we had and were still collecting. Hector was busy on a computer but looked up when I entered.

"We find her, nothing on the street and those bikers gone, Cal did get me a phone so on it"

"Can you let me have an encrypted file with everything we have, I'm sending it through my secure government access"

"Sure, you look like shit, get some rest, you no good to no one tired"

How could I sleep with Steph missing? But I knew Bobby would notice soon and make me sleep if I didn't. I spent the rest of the night in the war room going through the information we had, so many questions and no obvious way of getting the answers.

Chapter 14

At 0600 I went into the gym, I needed to center myself, but no matter how fast I ran or how hard I hit the bags I couldn't find my zone. A quick shower and shave had me looking better, but when I looked in the mirror the reflection showed my despair.

I was meeting with the team for up dates when a call came up from the lobby

"A Detective Morelli is here, insisting he speaks to you Ranger"

"Put him in conference one, and make sure all surveillance is running"

I was seething as I pushed my chair back to get up, Santos stood up with me.

"I'm with you primo"

I nodded, he would have my back against Morelli, even it meant trying to control me from beating the shit out of him, because that's exactly how I felt, how could that bastard have been part of that sting and been there allowing the FBI to arrest Steph and take her? I walked into the conference and sat at the head of the table, Santos stood at the door with Morelli pacing down one side. He obviously could recognize the anger that was now rolling from me in his direction.

"What do you want Morelli?"

"As far as the FBI think, I told them that I could get you to tell us about the explosion here"

"Really?"

"Yeah, they'd like nothing better than to get evidence from here"  
"Not happening"

"Will you at least talk to me?"

"Morelli for a good cop you're acting like a jerk"

"How's that?"

"If you think you know Steph then you should realize she was set up, whatever happened here, Steph had nothing to do with it, and I can prove that"

"Yeah, well that's not the problem, they've got enough evidence to lock her up and throw away the key. Here look at these"

He threw a folder onto the table, photographs sliding out. They were photos of Steph at the various locations she'd been to, collecting those dam letters, the last one was her on the bike leaving Miami airport.

"What are these supposed to prove?"

"That she was part of a network of extremists"

"How do these prove anything?"

"Because the people in the pictures with her are known to the FBI"

"These aren't originals, and you know it, anyone good on a computer could set these up. FBI have the originals, or were these from another snitch they seem so keen on using?"

Morelli sighed and looked away as Santos looked closely at the photos. Then he sat down a chair away from me, shoulders hunched.

"I know she couldn't have done this, but the dam FBI won't listen, they like to think it's an open and shut case and seem real happy to believe all this bullshit. I didn't know anything about any evidence they had until after the sting, hell, I just seemed to be along for the ride. I couldn't believe it when we surrounded a woman in a black leather jacket and it was Steph. Those dam FBI agents didn't seem surprised though. Manoso where Steph is concerned we both want her safe, and she isn't. I can't do anything or be seen to be doing anything but I know you can do things I can't"

"Like what Morelli?"

"Manoso she got hurt real bad, the dam FBI thought she just banged her head. I got to see her last night and she's in a bad way. Eventually I insisted on a doctor examining her, 'cos of course the FBI just hauled her into a cell. By the time a doctor got to her she was unconscious, he discovered she had internal bleeding. They moved her to a secure hospital for emergency surgery"

"Where Morelli?"

"The Federal Bureau of Prisons located in SeaTac, Washington"

"Which hospital Morelli?"

He took a scrap of paper from his coat pocket and held it on the table with his hand over it.

"She'll be there for two more nights, I never told you this"

When he let go of the paper he stood up and left the room without a backward glance, Santos left with him then returned a minute later. I turned the paper over to read the address.

"St Francis Hospital 34515 9th Ave S, Federal Way, WA 98003"

"You believe him?"

"Yeah I think I do, hell Santos she's on the other side of the country"

"So? Let's get upstairs and make plans to go get our girl back"

As we climbed the stairs to five Santos seemed more up beat than me, How was that? All sorts of ideas were running through my mind, but we only had a short time span. Maybe, maybe now was the time to call in a favor from that friend of mine.

"Santos you go and give the news to the team, I've got an idea but I need to make a phone call first"

In my office I was hesitant as I picked up the phone, this was a really big favor to ask, totally illegal and if caught would land us all in a heap of trouble, the thing was this seemed to be the only solution I could come up with.

"Manoso what the hell you ringing me for?"

"Good morning to you as well Kade"

"Great to hear from you, I was just thinking of you last week, how's things going, you still belong to Uncle Sam?"

"No, found better things to do, look Kade I haven't got a lot of time and if you say no then I'll understand"

"What, a job too hard for you?

"Kade are you still based on the west coast?"

"Yeah up in Washington State, why?"

"I need help and this is personal"

"Fire away"

So I did, I gave him enough information to cover everything that had happened without the minute details, finishing with the whereabouts of Steph and that she was ill.

"Is this the babe who you lent my hat to?"

"Yeah, Kade, that's my Babe"

"Give me two hours with my team to look at possible scenarios then we'll video conference, say 1500"

"Thanks Kade"

All right maybe a way forward, though how we'd ever pull this off I wasn't sure. I went into the war room and nodded at Tank, Santos and Bobby to follow me to my office. As we sat down Tank had a grin on his face.

"You call Kade, best person to have on your side and he's already in that area?"

I laughed; this is why they are my closest friends and why I trust them with my life.

"Yeah, he's doing some recon then video conferencing with us at 1500, I told him everything that's happened to give him an oversight of just how complex this whole situation has gotten"

"Ranger are you only including us on this?"

"Bobby you know as well as me that whatever happens is going to be highly illegal and we could end up with every alphabet agency down our throats? I don't want to get anyone involved where it might impact on their lives; we also have a business that guys rely on for a wage, so Rangeman has to be seen as totally innocent. I'll only risk myself because if Kade helps to get Steph out then we'll basically be on the run"

"Well I'm in whether you like it or not, she's hurt and I'm gonna be taking care of her, Santos what about you?"

"I'm in, I feel so upset that she was hurt and taken on my watch. In a controlled environment you know we are formidable, Tank?"

"I'm in, there's nothing better that I'd like to do than being with you on this, just like the good old days, but I think I need to be here to deflect the shit and cover for you boys, besides where ever you end up you'll have to keep a low profile"

I looked around and nodded as I agreed with their decisions.

"I didn't mention any of Morellis conversation to the rest, so Ranger, you need to decide who's going to be in the know"

"At the moment we seem to have a team of Ram, Cal and Hector so they would be my choice"

Santos got up and stood by the window looking out.

"What's bothering you Santos?"  
"The timing yesterday, Ranger, we arrived and not five minutes later those bikers get a message to move. There's a leek somewhere, someone who knew Steph was on her way or someone who was already there when she arrived."

"You mean someone here or someone who was part of the sting operation?"

"I'd say both. I mean how did someone know that Steph would be at the bank at that time? And if Steph was the objective then the FBI or police must have known in order to set up their operation"

"I agree with you, but at the moment we need to get Steph out and safe"

"Yeah, but to go back to your point I agree with those three being in the know, they're already working on it, but I think we need a cover story for us three disappearing that goes out to the rest of the men and possibly outside of Rangeman. No ones stupid, news of Stephs escape and you'll be at the top of the list"

As my computer signaled an incoming call I hit the stealth control for the room, basically shielding it from any type of surveillance, Hector had scanners throughout the building for bugs that may be planted but I always erred on caution.

"Rangeman here"

I saw Kade and two other faces I recognized, my guys moved to see the screen and to be in view of the camera.

"The rest of the "A" team, how you guys doing? Long time eh boys?"

"Kade I think everyone knows each other?"

"Yeah Ranger all worked together on some mission or other, hell as a team we'd be formidable"

We certainly would be, this group of seven men would be the elite of the elite, the two other guys had both been with me on missions, very good in their specialist field. Tobi was expert at hand to hand and a proficient marks man while Jobe was a demolition expert and driver. Kade was very similar to me; he was an excellent leader, strategist and all rounder.

"So Kade what do you think?"

"We're in, that girl of yours has put up with enough shit in her life without this, and I agree someone went to a lot trouble to set her up, as you say there's a bigger picture out there and we're in this to the end"

"So any ideas?"

"Recon found her in intensive care. The agents with her are pretty blasé about security, she's in no condition to escape on her own and I think they reckon no one knows where she is, they've got her in under a different name, Kaitlin Page"

Bobby took over the conversation.

"Kade what are her injuries?"

"Internal bleed from right kidney caused by an extreme external force, that's what's written in her records. Know what caused it?"

"No, prognosis?"

"They want her moved out day after tomorrow, apparently they went in to repair the bleed through keyhole, so theoretically she should be fit for transport. I'm not sure 'cos she's still out of it, lost a lot of blood"

"So how do we get her out without blowing covers or hurting bystanders"

"Got it all planned out, and we're in and out tomorrow night"

"Explain"

"My girl is a medic, like you Bobby, works with our teams, she got in today and has clearance to be in and out of her room. We've got a genius that's hacked into the hospital system and added her as the female doctor to attend. Tomorrow night there's going to be a distraction, electrical failure, and Angel will rig Stephs machines to show a flat line when the generators kick in. Two of us guys will move her to the mortuary and out to a waiting army field medical vehicle that's equipped and we'll take her to a private airfield and fly her out. Angel and I will be with her and these two bozos will pilot. There's a Jane Doe in the mortuary with similar features so we'll drop Stephs file on her"

"Hell Kade you make it sound easy, you sure you want to get this involved?"

"You can give me my hat back when I see you Ranger"

I was absolutely taken aback by what Kade had said; it's simplicity and the fact that he was personally going to get involved.

"Where to Kade?"

""You know that island I was always after? Well I'll meet you there, just be sure you don't leave any crumbs to follow"

"We're on our way Kade, I'll leave you with these three to tidy up any details and see you there"

"You bet"

I left the office and went up to seven, I felt so emotional. Relief that Steph had been found, relief that Kade had a plan to get her to safety, but also anxious at how ill she might be. Knowing where we were going to be, I packed two bags, one for myself and one for Steph. Feeling better at having done such a mundane task I headed back downstairs to work with Santos and Bobby on planning how we were going to leave. They looked up as I entered so I looked over Bobby's shoulder to see what he was doing.

"I'm putting together a list of medical supplies we could need and Santos is going through equipment, once we've done that I'm talking with Angel, and Santos with Tobi to decide what we need and what they'll have"

"OK do either of you know where his island is?"

They looked at me as though I was stupid.

"I thought you knew?"

"I do, it's called Ile De Caille and it's 3 miles off the northern tip of Grenada, road network provides easy access. There were 4 houses, as well as an airstrip. Electricity is available, and water stored in a 40,000-gallon tank. Knowing Kade he's probably built a fortress there by now so I'm sure there'll be plenty of supplies"

"How long has he owned it?"

"About five years, but I think he's probably worked on it in the last couple, he always wanted his own island"

"So we need a cover story while wer'e away, use your own names at the start then if necessary use a cover id"

"Santos and I can travel to Miami and out to Cuba, I'll play at the devastated friend with his cousin, Juan can run interference to make it seem we're there for a few weeks, and I still have family contacts in Cuba. Bobby you need to go a different route, maybe a medical volunteer group? Somewhere where you'll be out of communication?"

"Yeah, Honduras, then I can come in through Venezuela"

"OK then we need a small plane that's not tied to any of us, Santos?"

"Not a problem, we can pick it up out of Miami, then as long as Kade has fuel stored I can fly over to Venezuela for Bobby"

"They plan to take Steph out tomorrow night, Sunday, so I assume he'll fly straight out to arrive Monday. I'll book two tickets to Miami for early tomorrow evening and speak with Juan to expect us, Santos can you arrange to have a plane Monday?"

"I'm on it"

"Bobby?"

"On it, I'll look to fly out tomorrow to San Pedro Sula, Honduras then onto Barquisimeto, Lara State Venezuela Monday, hopefully you can pick me up maybe Tuesday morning?"

"OK I'll talk this through with Tank, then in the morning I'll go to the bonds office and let the word slip out that I'm going down to Miami"

I talked through with Tank how we were travelling, and the cover story he'd need to spread around.

"I don't think Bobby's cover is that important outside of Rangeman, I'm just concerned that our departures so close together would raise questions"

"Why don't we bring in a medic from Miami, there are two of them there, and just say Bobby has gone for more training?"

"That could work, if the FBI ask, then any volunteer work could be classed as field work training"

"Go get yourself organized and get Little Girl sorted, we'll keep in touch, and I'll keep on with investigating here"

I booked the flights to Miami and asked Juan to meet us at the airport. The first leg of this trip was going to be very public. I had sent the files to Pete letting him know I'd be away from Trenton, but would keep in touch, then made sure I had a copy of every piece of information to take to the island with me.


	8. Chapter 15 & 16

Chapter 15

By 9am I was ready to go, first stop the bonds office.

"Morning ladies"

Connie was working at the computer and Lula was sat on the couch eating. They both stopped what they were doing and looked at me, with a shake of her head Connie was the first to respond.

"Ranger, what the hell has happened to Steph?"

"What do you know Connie?"

"That she was involved somehow with that mess at that bank, but I can't get in touch with her, no one knows where she's at"

"What does Morelli say?"

"He's being real closed lipped, even the Burg is running itself in circles, some say she got herself arrested"  
Lula struggled to stand then came over sitting her ass on the edge of the table.

"Word with the girls on the street is she went off with them bikers"

"Really"

"Lula you n me know that's just stupid"

"Yeah well she done told officer Hottie that he aint an item no more, so he won't have ought to say, and I heard he was there at that bank and shots were fired, I reckon she's dead"

"Lula that's an awful thing to say"

"Only tellin ya how I heard it"

Lula accent was getting stronger, meaning she was getting annoyed.

"Well she needs to get her skinny white ass back here, I miss 'err"

"Ladies I'd thought I'd let you know I'm heading down to the Miami office"

"What 'bout our Steph?"

"Nothing I can do Connie, Tank will be point man while I'm away"

With that I left, they really were concerned about Steph but had no idea about what had happened, interesting that the burg was so quiet. I headed to the police station to have a conversation, again to put the word around. As I walked in I saw Eddie, shit I didn't want him to think I was abandoning Steph, as he approached me I shook his hand.

"Going down to Miami Eddie, so won't be around, I have a lead I'm following through on"

He frowned and then as though his brain was picking up he smiled, and I could see he recognized I was going after Steph.

"This FTA a big one then?"

"You could say that"

"Well good luck"

And with that we had totally understood each other. Morelli came out with Agent Langley and made straight for me.

"Manoso"

"Morelli, Agent Langley"

"I told Langley here that your explosion was caused by a faulty piece of gas equipment"

"Yes it was, I don't know where you got your false information from Langley"

"Well Mr. Manoso it doesn't really matter, we've closed the case and have a culprit in custody"

"So I hear, I'm headed down to the Miami office for a while, can't afford to get tied up with whatever happened"

"Can't blame you there, I wouldn't like the association to a known terrorist to come out"

"Gentlemen"

I turned and left, I knew what I'd said was a lie, but the remark by Langley had me reeling, he hadn't come across as the complacent type, he seemed almost pleased with himself, something not right there. Had I misjudged him so badly when we first met? I asked Tank to look into Langley, I was thinking about the comment Santos had made about someone being there at the bank waiting, but hold on, how did they know to be ready and waiting inside the bank the morning Steph walked in?

"There's a leek here in Rangeman"

"Why did you say that?"

"Because until the planning meeting no one knew Steph was going to the bank, and the sting was put in place waiting for her"

"Ah shit Ranger, there were a lot of the guys involved with that"

"Find out who from here knew, then send me the list, I'll work on it at the same time"

"Go, before you think of anything else"

The flight down to Miami was packed and we spent as much time circling the airport as in the air, that's' why I preferred to fly by private jet. Juan met us at the airport but I resisted his questions until we reached the office. Once inside my office I dropped the stealth switch, I loved the look on Juan's face; he's my brother but has never really understood the clandestine work that I have often been involved with. The Miami office was pure business and never had any covert operations run from it.

"Shit Carlos this is serious, isn't it"

"If you consider kidnapping a terrorist, then I suppose so"

"Why would you do that?"

"When her name is Stephanie Plum"

Santos laughed, and Juan looked literally speechless. I explained to him the events at the bank and that I hadn't seen or spoken with her.

"Juan you know there are parts of my life I keep separate from family, I have another family, you'd probably call them brothers in arms. What we've been through together bonds us like nothing else, that's why Santos, Brown, Tank and I tend to stay together, well there are others and they are helping, so I can't tell you what's going to happen, only ask you to trust me, I don't want you linked in with me if anything goes wrong"

"I do understand Carlos, I see more than you think, and I have some idea of what you've involved yourself with and you as well Lester. I also see what Steph means to you and as a husband I know I'd do anything for my wife as well. So fill me in on what you need me to do and I'll do it"

"Thanks hermano"

I did what I have never done before I walked up to him and hugged him as I said it. We spent the rest of the evening going over the details of how Juan would maintain our cover, in the end I knew he would do it well. Santos was arranging for the loan of a plane, I wasn't sure where from, and I didn't ask, as long as it was a legit loan that couldn't come back to me I didn't care. As the evening wore on I was becoming anxious, at 0100 a message came through from Kade.

"Have package, expect delivery by airmail"

48 hours gone and now only 24 hours to go.

Chapter 16

We were stood leaning against the black SUV looking at the plane in front of us.

"You trust Santos in that Hermano?"

"They always say a pilot doesn't want to die today, so yes, I've been in worse"

"Where the hell did he get it from?"

"Don't know, so don't ask him"

"Lester what is it anyway?"

"A Beech Queen Air B80, I picked this because it has a longer flight distance, 1050 nautical miles and seats 6, she's cool"

"She's a shitty color, is that rust?"

"You know Santos it reminds me of the cars Steph drives, I hope we have better luck than she does"

"Nah, it's been made to look like this"

"Why would, no forget I asked"

Now I really didn't want to know, but working it out in my head I knew we would have to land to re fuel.

"Santos where're we picking up fuel?"

" Jardines del Rey Airport, Cayo Romano. Just west of mainland Cuba" "Shit I hoped we don't get spotted for drug running in that thing" Juan laughed and got in the SUV flashing his lights as he left. I passed our luggage to Santos and belted myself in. "Chutes?" "Yes, I made sure we had some, with your track record, they're in the back under the seats" I turned around to look and was quite surprised at how luxurious the interior was, a single leather seat on each side with an aisle down the middle and even carpet on the floor. The strip we were flying from was rough and short but Santos is a very good pilot and we were in the air quickly. We were flying low under the radar, so to say, Santos had logged in a flight plan, but it was one that could be used within a specified time period, an unusual practice I'd not heard of before! The flight was smooth and only took a couple of hours, refueling went without a hitch, I was carrying a large amount of cash, so no questions were asked or records made, no flight plan seemed to be asked for either, so it wasn't long until we were eventually back in the air. Santos wanted to conserve fuel and dropped the air speed down so we took longer than I expected. As we skirted around the island of St Vincents, I turned on the radio and tuned into the frequency Kade told us to use, after about fifteen minutes we started hear a response. Instructions of how to approach, air speed and length of the airstrip were all responded to by Santos, as he skillfully brought us in to land. I was impressed at how smooth the surface was and saw the response of a jeep as we turned toward a hanger that was dug into the hillside. Opening the door I was lifted off my feet by the man himself. Had he aged, maybe, but he looked more relaxed and that showed in his features, he'd grown his hair and now he looked more like a beach bum, with highlights in his blond hair, tanned skin still kept toned. "Kade you look like a beach bum in your cut offs and sandals" "Manoso you look like a mercenary in your black cargos and cats" It was true, we did look like opposites. "Come on get your things in the jeep, we need to catch up first before I let you see our beautiful visitor" I looked at him and immediately felt that he had bad news. "I'll talk as soon as we arrive at the house" The road was one car width and seemed to wind around the bases of the hills, until we came out into a bay, here he parked in an area shaded by a large wooden roof with open sides and climbed out. "You want Santos with us?" "To start with, yes" I didn't take notice of where we were going but was glad when we eventually sat on a terrace of the larger house. A woman came out with a tray with beer and glasses. "Ranger this is Angel, my baby sister, she's been taking care of Stephanie, so I'll let her explain Stephanie's condition. Everything went like clockwork, exactly as planned. The FBI is in an absolute dilemma and stories are like old women gossiping. Basically the official story inside the FBI is that she died, but they lost the body. Lots of blame all round and there are some agents really pissed off. So bringing her here was real easy, Angel you want to explain your side?" "OK Steph had been bleeding internally for too long before anyone did something about it, so she'd lost so much blood she was very close to organ failure. She had a tear in her right kidney which judging from the bruise on her back was from something punching her. Was she wearing Kevlar?" "Yes a friend had sent me a prototype for her, because he knew how often she got into difficult situations, it looked like a leather jacket"

"Then I would say it was a bullet that hit her, quite close range then, judging from the bruising on her back. So the surgeon did a good repair with keyhole, didn't want to do invasive surgery because of her condition. They gave pints of blood, fluids and all sorts of drugs and one to keep her sedated to give her body chance to recuperate. The bleeding was stopped, but I've got her on IV fluids and I'm monitoring her vitals, which are still too low"

Now I knew she was going to give me bad news.  
"But?"

"She's still unconscious and she shouldn't be, I've run out of ideas other than time"

"I need to be with her Angel, and I can't explain why, but I know it will help"

"I totally agree with you, she's been through so much both physically and mentally she needs someone she knows, come on I'll take you"

"Santos if you don't mind I need to be with my Babe on my own"

Santos nodded and I followed Angel through a lounge area, along an outdoor walkway into a separate cottage. From the entrance we went through a lounge to a door that Angel opened then closed behind me. There was my Babe, so pale and so still laid on her back with her hair loose across the pillow, there was the sound of a heart monitor and an automatic pressure cuff. She had an IV in her right hand, leading from a stand with two fluid bags dripping through. I stood and watched her chest rise and fall slowly before I moved to her left side away from equipment. Laying next to her with my face in her hair and my hand with hers in mine I started to talk to my Babe. I must have spent two hours talking, varying between Spanish and English, stroking her face and placing kisses on her skin. I told her how much I loved her and that I couldn't exist without her, that she was my light, my angel in a dark world. I kept telling her how sorry I was that I didn't protect her or keep her safe. I think at this point I realized that she was in fact safer when we were together than apart, I'd always told myself that by making her mine I'd bring a world of hurt into her life from my past, but in reality she had brought as much chaos as I did. The day had changed to evening when Angel came in; turning on a background light she looked to me.

"Go take a shower and freshen up, your bags are just outside in the lounge, then eat and come back to sleep next to her. Her vitals have already improved since you've been here, I'll stay with her till you're ready"

I felt relieved that Angel thought there might be some improvement, so did as she suggested. I'd brought some Bulgari because I know Steph loves the smell, I'd also packed some of my T-shirts for her. Refreshed and changed, I ate some fruit and drank some water before returning to the bedroom. Angel had switched on a dim light on the other side of the room; I opened the patio doors to let in the sound of the ocean and a gentle breeze. Angel frowned at me, obviously questioning what I was doing.

"She loves the sea and feels safe and grounded with the sound and the smell of the ocean"

"Good idea then, call 4 on the phone if you need me"

I returned to my position by her side and rested my head next to hers, holding her hand in mine. I spent a short time talking and touching before I succumbed to sleep.


	9. Chapter 17 & 18

Chapter 17

I felt so tired, and so sad. I was having a wonderful dream that I didn't want to end. I could hear the sound of waves breaking on the shore and the salty smell of seaweed left to dry, I could feel a soft breeze floating across my face, but my intense sense of contentment came from the smell of my man, Bulgari and Ranger, a heady combination, and if I concentrated on my dream I could feel him, his essence, his being. I wavered from falling back into despair; I didn't want to wake up to the reality that I'd found myself in, the pain physically from my head and my back, and the pain of loss. Loss of my freedom, loss of my love, loss of everything I knew. I couldn't go back to that, to the loneliness, to the horrific noises at night, to the cold and the dark. So I fought to stay in my dream and made myself turn to my illusion of Carlos, wanting him, craving him, and loving him. I was imagining the tenor of his voice the vibration of his chest as he spoke, oh and how I imagined the cadence from the language of his heritage. I dreamed and I was happy until I knew it would leave me, a tear rolled down my cheek as if reminding me that I really didn't want to wake up ever. My dream seemed to understand that I was destined to stay, because as the emotions overwhelmed me the sensations from my dream grew stronger until I could almost believe it was real.

"Babe, wake up for me"

"Babe you can't leave me"

"Babe, I love you"

Yes I needed to stay forever in my dreams.

"Babe please, open your eyes for me"

"I need to see your beautiful blue eyes"

Can you open your eyes in a dream; can you feel kisses on your face? I could, as well as the heartbeat next to me, and the soft breaths across my ear and cheek. My eyes in my dream were heavy, but I wanted my dream world, so I struggled to open them and there was my dream. Warm chocolate brown eyes and a face so open to emotions, love, concern but also a sadness I couldn't understand. Why was his face so sad in my dream? My eyes opened further and I felt the warmth of his skin against mine and the hold of his hand on mine. If this were a dream then it was so real, more real now than the depression of the cell.

"Babe it's real, I'm real, and you are here with me"

I moved my head ever so slightly to realize that I was in a room of sunlight and sounds. Sounds! A look to my right and I heard a beeping noise, and a whishing sound as something seemed to clamp on my arm, I winced at a pull from something in my hand. I tried to form words but my mouth was dry and my throat sore. Carlos raised my head and shoulders and placed a pillow behind me bringing a straw to my mouth. When I looked into his eyes they were moist, was I dying?

"Babe you've been very ill, but I have you now, you're safe"

I swallowed, water, but it tasted like nectar in my mouth and throat.

"Where am I, how?"

"An island far away from anyone and everyone who would ever hurt you, I suppose I should say you were the princess rescued by knights in shining armor"

I smiled at that, I was already feeling more grounded, tears again fell from my eyes.

"My dream wasn't a dream?"

"No querida, your dream is real"

"Please hold me"

And he did, despite the restrictive tubes and wires, an arm around my shoulders and an arm around my hips, I held him around his waist, and oh god it felt so right. He released me but still held on.

"I need to call Angel to come check on you, OK?"

I nodded as he lifted the phone and spoke. A minute later a woman walked into the room a wide smile on her face.

"I am so pleased to see you awake, and now I believe, that the door to our soul is through our eyes, you have the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen"

I smiled back at her and I immediately liked her. She was like a pixie, small and petite with layered blond hair to her shoulders, flicked as it fell around her face, amber eyes the color of honey stood out under long curled lashes and skin touched by the sun to give a warm tanned color. As she checked over the equipment she smiled at me again. "Stephanie you are doing so well I'm going to get rid of all this paraphernalia. Then I need to see how strong you feel. That okay with you?"

I nodded and she took off the cuff, unstuck the pads from my chest and very gently holding my hand removed the needle.

"Now I need to remove your catheter, you OK with Ranger here or does he need to go?"

I squeezed to hold onto his hand

"Stay"

"Now lay back and hold your breath, a slight tug, and there it's gone"

"While you're laid down roll over to your side and let me check your back"

I rolled to my side wincing at a pain on my lower back.

"You have some really nasty bruising here which will hurt, but the incision is healing great"

I looked to Carlos with a frown.

"I don't know what happened for me to have an incision"

"When you're up and comfortable there's a lot to talk through, but what's most important at the moment is that you are feeling better and are comfortable, OK?"

"Yes, can I try to get up?"

"Only with someone helping you, and only short distances. How about we set up the chairs on the terrace for you and I'll arrange a drink and some light food?"

"That sounds perfect"

Carlos helped me to sit up, and with my legs over the edge of the bed, feet on the floor, and his arm around my waist he carefully raised to me to a standing position. I remained still, trying to get my equilibrium. I couldn't have stayed up without his support, feeling a weakness wash through me.

""You're doing great Babe, let's try a few steps"

Very slowly, one step at a time we moved toward the opened doors, I was determined to be outside. Once outside he lowered me onto a deep cushioned sun lounger, raising my legs in front of me. That was exhausting, but so worth it. The view was incredible, an aqua marine sea with small waves breaking onto white sand. We seemed to be in a bay with rocky outcrops at each end, surrounded by palm trees and low shrubs, steps led down to a path that meandered down to the beach. The breeze was warm and carried with it a cacophony of sounds from bird life. Yes this place was like a piece of heaven. To my side was a low table with small portions of fruit and bread, juice and water.

"Angel would like you to drink plenty of water to help your kidney repair"

"No problem, Carlos what happened?"

He got up and moving me slightly sat behind me with his legs on either side of me, pulling a thin blanket up over my legs, it was then I realized I was only wearing a short sleeveless nightshirt.

"What do you remember?"

"Going into the bank with Lester and a middle aged man led me down into a gated room, he wouldn't let Lester come with me"

I was picturing the scene as it unfolded in my mind.

"I'm probably going to sound muddled, because I need to say my thoughts out loud"

"No problem, we'll put the pieces together"

"I had my key in my hand and he used one, the box opened and he placed a closed drawer on the table, inside were papers that I took out, I think he'd moved away by then. I had my phone in my hand for some reason and then as I'd reached the last one there were shouts and people appeared from nowhere around me. I was surrounded and everyone was shouting, for some reason my hands were in my pockets, I heard a familiar voice and turned, lots of shouts, a loud noise then I felt a something hit my back, then I fell and I think I hit my head. That's it. I don't know what happened next, but I was aware of being in a small room, so cold, strange voices and murmurings and screams coming from around me. I felt so much pain in my body, and felt sick and my head was swimming, I don't think I was really awake because everything is a blur of sounds and light. Then I woke up with you beside me"

By this time I was crying as I remembered that awful place I'd been in and shivered at the memory, Carlos wrapped his arms around me, turning me slightly so I was cocooned against his chest.

"Shush my querida, you're safe now"

As he wiped away my tears and the crying subsided I drifted into a dreamless sleep. I came awake; aware of voices talking in hushed tones, slowly opening my eyes I saw a stranger sat close on a chair facing us. He had long blond streaked hair around a face that was attractive with prominent bone structure, good skin with a scar on his forehead above one eyebrow, his eyes reminded me of Angel. He was wearing cut off jeans and a white T-shirt that framed the muscles below. I stirred and his eyes looked into mine, a smile on his face.

"Good afternoon sleeping beauty"

"Hi"

I slowly sat up straighter still supported by Carlos behind me; he moved a small cushion placing it at the small of my back.

"Babe you feeling better?"

"Yes, thank you"

"This is Kade, he basically walked into the hospital where you were, wheeled you out then brought you here"

"Oh"

Yeah real eloquent, he actually reminded me of Diesel with dimples in his cheeks when he smiled. He was wearing a Seals hat that I'm sure I recognized.

"That hat, I'm sure I recognize it?"

His voice was low but had a lilt to it expressing a serious tone.

"Carlos returned it to me today, you see a few years back this man of yours risked his life to get me out of a hell hole, I was badly injured, a bit delirious with a fever from infection. He saved my life in more than one way, so after I recovered I gave him this hat, to say I owed him my life and would be forever in his debt. He thinks he's paid up because I helped to get you out.

"Kade, no price, you've saved mine by bringing Steph to me"

"Well I 'aint finished yet, because chica bonita we're gonna get those scum bags responsible for this"

I stared wide-eyed at him, why would he help me? A movement caught my eye with Angel coming into the room followed by Lester and Bobby?

"Why are you two here? I'm so glad to see you"

Bobby approached first and kissed my cheek.

"I had to make sure my favorite patient was healing"

"Thanks Bobby"

Not to be outdone Lester gave me a noisy kiss right on my lips, eliciting a low growl at my back.

"Beautiful I'm so sorry"

"Sorry for what?"

"Letting you get hurt"

"You didn't, you couldn't do anything"

"Well I sure am glad to see you, and you look to be doing well"

The guys all sat around chatting, how was I so lucky to have such amazing people around me? I half listened to their conversations just enjoying the jovial atmosphere around me when I realized I really needed to use the bathroom. I tried to get up but Carlos wasn't having that, I whispered so only he could hear, a little embarrassed.

"I need to use the bathroom"

"I'll help you to get there and Angel can help inside. Angel can you help Steph out please?"

I was lifted onto my feet, much better now, I seemed to have found my balance, and slowly walked inside.

"I feel more solid now, and walking is easier"

"Good, still not leaving your side though"

In the bathroom Angel helped me to use the toilet, I looked at my reflection in the mirror as I washed my hands. God I looked so pale and I had dark circles under my eyes, my hair was an absolute mess.

"Don't worry, I tell you what, why don't I help you to shower and sort your hair, then I have an ideal dress you can wear that won't catch or irritate your back?"

"That sounds wonderful"

An hour later I felt refreshed, Angel had braided my hair off my face, and I was wearing a calf length, cream wrap around dress and white flip-flops. My muscles were loser and the ache in my head and back had dulled.

"Thank you Angel that has made me feel so much better"

"I thought it would, err, so who's this hot medic you've brought in?"

"You like the look of him?"

"Well he seems like a guy I could get to know, and he's certainly nice to look at"

"You'll be pleased to know he is a lovely guy, and as far as I know unattached, so go for it girl"

We were laughing as we went back out to join the men, I noticed Bobby give Angel the once over, maybe with a little bit of push? You never know?

Soon evening came upon us; the sky was an amazing hue of reds as the sun set behind the water, though it was still warm outside. There was only Carlos and I left with the remnants of a meal that had appeared. A woman, maybe the age of my mother, appeared to clear the dishes away. Her face carried a permanent smile, lines from age and probably the sun, with warm eyes, added to her charm. Carlos spoke to her, I think in Spanish, before she disappeared. Returning to our previous position, of Carlos wrapped behind me, I felt the need to ask questions.

"So who's Kade, and where are we?"

"Kade as he explained is a very good friend who hit on bad times after he was injured, he came to me for help and in the end he set up his own company similar to Rangeman over on the north west coast. He doesn't just do what we do though, more soldiers for hire, but he has a very strong moral code and won't just sell his soul to the highest bidder. That's how he afforded to buy this island, he always had this dream of a paradise to escape to"

"So he has more men and more equipment and resources?"

"Yes, not something I wanted to get involved with because I was still under contract to the Government and that was enough for me, Kade couldn't do that because he was discharged as medically unfit"

"So why's he going to help us?"

"That's who he is Babe, he'll move heaven and earth if he sees something as an injustice, and I think he's fallen for your charm already"

"Hmm"

"Come on you must be tired let's get some sleep then maybe tomorrow we can walk a little"

I used the bathroom, this time on my own, and found one of Carlos's T-shirts and a pair of my briefs on the bed, I held them up at Carlos with a frown, how the hell were they even here?

"I packed some of your clothes that I thought you could use and brought them with me"

"Mind reader!"

I lay over onto Carlos's chest my head over his heart, his arms around me and drifted into a deep sleep.

Chapter 18

It wasn't quite light outside when I came awake and it took a few seconds to register what had disturbed me. Steph was moving in her sleep and it was becoming more pronounced, she was obviously agitated and moans were resonating in her chest. I tried to sooth her by stroking the skin on her arm and face, but her sudden movements caught me by surprise, a sudden violent jolt shot through her body accompanied by a scream from her mouth. Then as suddenly as it started she stilled completely, with tears rolling down her cheeks. I sat up and brought her up to my chest rocking her and talking to her, I needed her calm enough to return to sleep or to wake up. The latter was the result and I saw her eyes fluttering as consciousness came to her. She was disorientated so I continued to talk.

"Mi amante, your okay, your safe, I have you"

She shuddered as she began to sit up, the tears slowing.

"Oh god that dream seemed so real, I was scared I was still in that cell"

"I'll never let that happen querida"

"I remembered the shooting. That bastard shot me"

"Who Babe?"  
"Morelli!"

That statement took me by surprise, Morelli was a good cop, and surely he wouldn't shoot someone who was unarmed and even less so Steph.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I remember bringing my arms up, hands open, he was behind me, and I heard his voice, I turned my head and looked into his eyes because I recognized his voice, but before I could turn my body he shot me, hitting my lower back on my right side. Why would he shoot me?"

"I don't know Babe, he was the one who came to me and told me where you were. He'd been to see to see at the prison and he'd got a doctor to see you. He basically asked me to get you out and make you disappear"

"I don't understand, who were the men there and why was Morelli there?"

"The word out is that the FBI along with TPD had a sting set up to catch a bomber at the bank"

"And they thought I was the bomber?"

"Seems they think there was enough evidence to point the finger at you"

"Did I hear right yesterday that there was an explosion at Rangeman? Was anyone hurt?"

"Yes a bomb went off, but no one was hurt. The police and FBI tried to say that was you as well, but we kept them out and feigned it as a gas explosion"

"Why would they think it was me? Why a bomb at Rangeman? Whom was the bomb meant for?"

"Slow down a bit, a parcel addressed for me was in the office down stairs waiting to be checked out when it blew, you were upstairs with me when it was delivered and we were getting ready to leave. I don't think whoever planned it realized how close we are"

"My phone, I need my phone"

"I don't know where it is"

"But we have to find it"  
"Babe, you're getting stressed out, calm down. Where was your phone? Why do you need it?"

"I used it to video the documents as I looked at them, I put it in that secret pocket in that new coat you gave me"

"Then we'll try to find your coat"

At that moment there was a knock on the door and both Angel and Bobby came in.

"Steph just here to check you out"

I got up and looked at Bobby, nodding my head toward the door, Angel went over to talk with Steph.

"Babe I'll go bring you your breakfast and something to drink, what would you like?"

"Anything is fine"

Bobby came with me into the lounge and we stood beyond the door out of earshot.

"She woke up from a nightmare so she's upset, she remembers the shooting and details from the bank, so go easy on her"

"Will do, she still looks so pale and I'd say she's lost weight which isn't good for her. I've spent time with Angel going over her medical notes and the treatment Angel carried out. Steph still needs antibiotics for another few days but the pain should be less today. Err Ranger three weeks for her to heal before anything physical"

Was he implying I would hurt her by demanding sex, un-fucking believable. I didn't give him a response; hopefully the look I gave him would exude my annoyance at him. He looked suitably chastised and disappeared back into the bedroom while I went in search of food. I returned with a tray of pancakes, coffee and juice on a tray prepared by Sofia, I suppose Steph would liken her to Ella. I placed the tray outside on the terrace and went in to help Steph move. She was moving better, but yes I now acknowledged that she had lost weight. Steph was more alert today, I don't know if she realized how much she had dozed yesterday while sat outside, so I decided a walk would do her good, she had eaten some of her breakfast so hopefully her appetite was coming back.

"Would you like to go for a walk along the beach?"

Steph didn't answer but held her hand out and smiled, I took that as a yes, and with an arm around her waist led her down the path, across the beach to the waters edge.

"You still haven't told me where we are"

"The island's called Ile De Caille and it's 3 miles off the northern tip of Grenada, which is that way, over there is Barbados and over in that direction is Venezuela"

I'm not sure how good Stephs mental picture of countries was but the answer seemed to satisfy her. We walked along the edge the water to where the rocks began and then returned and sat down on the sand, she laid back, eyes closed soaking up her surroundings, and I couldn't resist kneeling behind her head and kissing her.

"I hear a certain beautiful woman likes kissing upside down"

She smiled and cupped my face in her hands.

"I love you Ricardo Carlos Manoso"

"I love you too Babe, more than ever, I was so worried about you"

"Well I'm here now, wait what about my parents and friends, what do they know?"

"Not sure, I need to catch up with Tank this morning, come on lets head back then while you take a rest I'll talk with him and get all the news from Trenton"

I left Steph sleeping and went through to the main house to find Kade. He was in a very high tech office on his computer when I entered.

"Kade I could do talk with Tank, what's the best way?"

"Use that sat phone, it's secure"

'Thanks"

I made the call hoping Tank was around his office to answer.

"Ranger how's my Little Girl?"

"She's doing great Tank, much better, and she's remembering things"

"Good what do you need 'cos business is running smooth"

"Tank we need to get hold of the coat Steph was wearing to the bank"

"Why?"

"Her phone is in it and she videoed the documents from the safety deposit box"

"That would be an excellent piece of evidence to get hold of, I'll get Ram on that"

"Tank it was Morelli who shot her"

"Ah shit, how's she taken to that memory?"

"Nightmares, but she seems to be bouncing back. Any thing else?"

"Yeah Hector has been trying to get info on the bank, no records at all on who had those boxes, I suppose back in the day you paid and got a key, apparently the cost was phenomenal even by todays standards, but it meant no one knew what was in them, except the owner. Thing is Hector found out that the bank was an immigrant bank, they sold steamship tickets to immigrants and families and there are passenger lists which document the name of the ticket purchaser, details about the passengers, and family members. There are ledgers, used for immigration information, and to help individuals with the naturalization process or help family members seeking asylum"

"Tank how does that help?"

"Maybe the box belonged to a Jewish family?"

"And the woman?"

"Maybe she wanted what was in the box?"

"We need Stephs phone, Tank what's the talk about town on Steph?"

"Well some says she's dead, others that she's in prison and then there's the one that she ran away"

"I'll give Don a call and see what the FBI are saying, you heard from Eddie?"

"Yeah, he called yesterday. Apparently there are no loose tongues at TPD, Morelli's being real quiet and hasn't mentioned anything about Steph. Those two agents who came to see you, they ran the whole bust. Real quiet at the Plum household, Eddie said it was strange when he visited, Edna and Frank weren't there but Stephs mother hardly said a word"

"Thanks Tank, I'll catch up with you"

Kade was looking at me as if trying to decipher a puzzle, which we were.

"Ranger how about we have a meeting after dinner to start really dissecting all this?"

"Yeah"

I felt no closer to any solution; in fact it felt further away. When I returned to the terrace Santos was with Steph playing cards, she looked brighter and was laughing obviously enjoying his company.

"Santos we have a meeting after dinner, so talk to Kade and set up a room with all the contents of the files"

"Will do"

As they finished their game I decided Steph would enjoy a tour of the main house and lunch. The afternoon was spent with Steph sleeping and me going through the evidence

again. We spent an enjoyable mealtime with Kade and his men, a lot of reminiscing, new stories being told. Angel and Steph half listened and had their own stories to share, when we'd finished Kade led us into a large conference room. Steph immediately started to look at all the papers pinned up on the boards. She turned to Kade.

"Can I have a pink highlighter?"

"Pink, do I look like I use pink?"

"Nah, but it would look good on you"

Angel laughed and handed one to Steph then we stepped back and silently watched her as she worked her magic, looking for those elusive threads.

"Kade let's leave her to it and discuss our next steps"

We sat at a table at the far end of the room, the three of us from Rangeman and Kade and his two men.

"Santos can you trace where Steph travelled and look at who made the hotel bookings, bought air tickets and find out about that bike at the airport"

"On it Ranger"

Kade was watching Steph, I think trying to work out what she was doing.

"Ranger what's she doing?"

"Looking for connections, she gets a gut reaction and something will stand out to her. She calls it her spidey sense and I'd trust her instincts anytime"

"Santos you up to date with the report from Tank?"

"Yes and I updated the boards"

"Kade any ideas?"

"Let's start with a list of possible bad guys"

Beatrice Lang or Charlotte Rains but real identity unknown

Langley- FBI- older but complacent

Mosely - FBI –young and arrogant

Grossman – Journalist, may be no one but he was following Steph around

Sandor and Hickman– both new to Rangeman who knew about Steph going to the bank, Tank checked and no one else knew, other than those I trusted,

The bikers – maybe Cal has a lead or Hector can get something from one their phones

Morelli – TPD, part of sting, I'd say a good cop

"But he shot me"

We all turned to look at Steph, hands on hips with an absolutely beautiful glare on her face. Kade laughed at her.

"You run out of pink ink Bonita?"

She gave him her famous Italian hand gesture and returned to the boards. I took charge deciding our next actions.

"Kade can you research Grossman"

Steph had now come closer to the table.

"My job"

"Babe are you in this meeting or not?"

"Yes, I want Grossman, I think he knows something"

She was pacing with everyone watching, Santos, Bobby and I knew her too well, while Kade and his guys were looking at her strangely.

"Babe what are you thinking?"

She had a plan and for some reason I didn't think I was going to like it.

"We need to be in Trenton"

"Shit, no, I can't risk that, you could end up a target by just about everyone"

"Angel and I talked about this, anyone we need to talk to is back home, we thought that if Angel gave me a make over so no one will recognize me as Stephanie Plum, she'll talk to the people close to me and I'll pick up the others"

I looked at Kade.

"Don't look at me, I had nothing to do with it, but for what it's worth I think it could work"

"Primo, we could work out of the satellite office, only the core team know about it, and if we use the logo from Kade he can have Angel and Steph as employees"

"Shit why do I feel out numbered on this?"

"Because you are Carlos"

We allocated names for different people to do the research on and decided we'd leave the island in two days, Tobi and Jobe were going back to Trenton with Santos and Bobby tomorrow evening to set things up and Kade had two other men still at home who would join them, Steph and I would then fly out with Kade and Angel. We turned in for the night ready to start the next morning. I felt anxious and obviously Steph noticed.

"Carlos it will be alright"

"Babe, I nearly lost you I can't go through that again, and there is no way the FBI or police are going to arrest you"

"I have a good feeling about this and I need to be doing something, you know that"

"I'll agree with you on one condition"

"Go on"

"If I think you are in immediate danger you're out of there"

"Same with you"

"Agreed"

I sealed that agreement with a kiss; taking her face with my hands she opened her mouth and traced her tongue across my lips we both opened our mouths to each other and our tongues danced as we turned our heads to deepen the intense feelings being stirred. I felt my reaction to her and pulled away laying my forehead on hers.

"We can't, not until you've healed more, I don't want to hurt you"

"Shit, I know, I got a lecture from Angel this morning"

"Makes me feel better, because I got one from Bobby"

We settled into bed, her in my arms.


	10. Chapter 19 & 20

Chapter 19

No dreams, what a blessing and I felt a lot better. Angel checked me over and agreed, the bruising was turning yellow and it didn't hurt as much, the bump on my head had gone so I carefully crept out of bed so as not to wake Carlos up. Showered and dressed, I brought him breakfast in bed, surprising him. After eating some breakfast, giving Carlos a kiss, I went back to the meeting room and looked again at the boards. There was something here that I was missing, I knew it, and I just couldn't see it. Armed with a laptop I moved to an outside terrace and got down to work. I wanted to look at a few people together to find a link, so Beatrice Lang/ Charlotte Rains

Langley- FBI, Mosely – FBI, Grossman- journalist and Sandor, on an impulse I threw in Hickman, so sue me I didn't like him. The first search focused on the two people with a similar surname, coincidence maybe? Lang and Langley? The second series of searches I entered looked at each person individually, then finally the pièce de résistance, all the surnames together. That last search would take a while so I worked on Grossman through a newspaper search program. Interesting there were a few articles under this name and Thomas Grossman wrote them, my man was called Ben. Ben had only written for a local paper and focused on sport, so why did he tell Lester he wanted a scoop on my job and me? The articles from Thomas Grossman were at least twenty years old and his focus was on Anti-Semitism. The printer was just starting up so I presumed the last search was still running, I hadn't printed that out yet, there was something I wanted to try first. With papers on the floor I lay down and with a new pink pen from Kade, I started the task of reading and highlighting. I jumped up and went back to the computer, Beatrice, I wonder, Betty? Beatriz? Betia? Of course Elizabeth. I'd heard of women who were called Elizabeth shorten their name to Beth and Betty so Beatrice wasn't so far away from that. So Elizabeth Langley went into the search, my large search, my spidey senses knew I was right. OK now my magic touch, the program was really quite simple and I'd often thought about trying out something different when I got stuck at my work at Rangeman. The idea I had was to take the results of all the searches I'd run including the newspaper one and sneaky me, Facebook and messaging sites it could access, then asked it to track by relationship, places of birth, marriage and deaths, residency and then threw out the probability and reasonableness of the people it identified as likely to have, or had a relationship. Yeah big words for me, and come on I'm not a computer genius, so I had the idea of exactly what I wanted it to do and Hector wrote the program for me. I'm not sure if he seriously thought it would work, but what can I say, he likes me. On the limited times I'd used it, it had worked successfully. Now I was getting antsy waiting for something to happen and I started to hop from foot to foot.

"Come on, hurry up, and work your magic"

I was almost singing at it, eventually the printer spat out the results, I scanned the contents and knew I'd hit the jackpot, printed for me were the names, likely place and time of birth, parents if available and their relationship to the other names. I was so excited I couldn't sit down and ended up walking back and forth across the room reading the analysis. I was buzzing as I ran from the room papers in hand into Kade's office.

"I've found it, her, them"

Oh shit, I just barged in on eight men in the middle of a videoconference.

I whispered "sorry", gave a finger wave and turned to leave.

"Stephanie"

Shit he used my full name; I stopped but didn't turn around, I was almost trying to make myself smaller.

"You shouting at my Little Girl Ranger?"

Tanks voice? That made me turn around, and this time those eight men were smiling at me. Kade came up to me and curled his arms around me.

"Shit Ranger you scared the shit out of her"

"Beautiful what have you been up to that's got you jumping up and down?"

"I'm sorry Babe we were literally brain storming the people on our list"

"I have a feeling that Bonita has something to tell us"

"Beautiful you've only been at it a few hours"

Carlos looked at me and smiled, then moved his chair back from the desk, which was an invitation to me. I moved to him and sitting on his lap placed my papers in front of me, with his arms around my waist I began.

"The woman who hired Rangeman as Charlotte Rains and the bitch who set me up, Beatrice Lang is the same person, also known as Elizabeth Langley. She was born in Hungary and is Catholic according to immigration records, I believe she came into the country with Thomas Grossman, who is Jewish, and the father of that psycho who was following me. They had their tickets paid for by Rosenbaum Bank, who did a lot to bring immigrant Jews into the country. Agent Ian Langley, I'm sure is related, but there's something hinkey going on there because I don't think Langley is an original name for either one of them, haven't quite got to his background yet, anyways where was I? Oh yeah the next cog in the wheel is Gerard Hickman, slimy creep, he is Agent Langleys son, but the mother never put dear dads name on the birth certificate, she kept her maiden name even after she married her new man"

"Proud of you Babe"

"You know you can always come work for me don't you Bonita, she's magic, I'm speechless"

"All mine Kade"

And just to show it he kissed me on my ear. I felt good about myself. Carlos looked at the men and shrugged.

"Okay that narrows down our job, Babe did you work out where Elizabeth Langley is?"

"No and knowing her she has a few aliases attached to her"

"Kade you pick up our man Hickman, and put him through the works"

"Santos you've got Grossman senior"

"He's dead"

"OK Santos work with Cal on the bikers"

"Babe how about you and Angel get cozy with Grossman?"

"I'm going to talk with Pete about Agent Langley, maybe even someone higher up"

All right maybe we were moving in the right direction but something was off, I was chewing on my bottom lip and trying to think what it was.

"Babe, I can smell smoke, what's wrong?"

"We're missing a key player, I just can't figure out who. Maybe if we knew why, it would help and if I can get my phone back that might help"

"Ranger I'll put Tobi and Jobe on Morelli, maybe see what they can find out?"

"Thanks Kade"

The meeting came to an end and Lester and Bobby came to say goodbye.

"We'll see you back home, and make sure you don't overdo it"

I kissed Bobby on the cheek as he turned to pick up his bag.

"Beautiful, you please be careful"

"Will do Lester, and hey guys, remember you don't know the new me when we get back to Trenton"

Angel and I had the evening planned out, Carlos was banned from coming anywhere near, and if it were possible I would say he was sulking. We ate as Angel worked her magic, Sofia came in to help, and she was definitely the Venezuelan equivalent to Ella. She had bought totally new wardrobes for both of us. Angel had talked Kade into a uniform for his men who were working with us and talked him into a fleet of vehicles. We'd be living at the new office but as I hadn't been there I couldn't describe the place. After five hours Angel showed me to a full-length mirror. Holy shit! I had short spiky blond hair, brown eyes and skin with an all over tan. My breasts were at least two sizes bigger, courtesy of a gel bag inside my bra and my hips were more curvaceous, I mean come on my ass was already too big if you asked me, but the special underwear added more to my hips. My finger and toenails were painted bright pink matching the belt. The new uniforms were a deep grey so we'd gone for tight fitting hipster jeans that had been dyed to the right shade of grey and a sleeveless grey cotton rolled neck top completed the outfit. Angel passed me a shoulder holster complete with gun all in black. To complete the outfit we had a bright pink gilet hiding the gun. Angel was dressed in an identical outfit; we could have been sisters. OK now for the test, let's see what the men thought. I'd practiced on changing how I walked, using my hips and stretching my spine up and my shoulders back, so with a definite roll of the hips we entered the lounge where Carlos and Kade were working. They both looked up as we went in and stood together in front of the door, Kade smiled and looked me up and down, Carlos had on his blank face. Oh shit he doesn't think this is going to work, I turned and ran, but I didn't get far when a pair of arms caught me and lifted me off the floor.

"Babe what's wrong, why did you run off?"

"You're not happy with this, this disguise and that means you'll send me away"

Tears were rolling down my face now; no problem with running mascara Angel had put lash extensions on me.

"Babe I didn't know what to expect and hell, you look so different I couldn't see you, my Babe"

"Are we okay?"

"Yes we're okay, I miss your wild curls but that's a small price to pay for you being with me, and I assume you have contacts in?"

I carefully took the contacts out and looked into his eyes.

"Now there's my Babe, her beautiful blue eyes that sees into my soul"

"I'm sorry I panicked"

"De nada querida"

"Shall we go back?"

"Yes, I want to know what Kade thinks"

By the time we returned to the lounge I felt better and had a smile on my face, I gave Kade a "little girl lost" look.

"Ranger how the hell am I going to work with these two looking like this? Let alone keeping my men away"

"Oh you'll figure it out"

"So you know what Angel is going to have me driving? What they're driving?"

"Don't you dare tell him, it's a surprise"

Chapter 20

Once Steph had got rid of the contact lenses and removed the blond wig I relaxed, her new look was certainly a surprise, I don't think I would have recognized her, but her face was still my Babe, I'd mentioned that to Angel and she said that Steph was going to have her lips plumped, eyebrows plucked to change the shape and a plastic appliance that fitted over her back teeth to accentuate her cheek bones and jaw line. Apparently Steph would only have these done after we had left the island. We spent our last night kissing and touching, with talking in between; she'd tried to give me relief for what was becoming a permanent hard on, but I'd told her that if she had to wait then so would I, that sex wasn't the most important part of our relationship. Who was I kidding; I would be taking a lot of cold showers again. We flew in Kade's' private jet from the island to Miami, Steph had him in stitches when she demanded to know where the parachutes were, until I reminded him of her last flight in one of these jets. We held each other on the flight, neither one of us saying very much, and I left her in his care.

"Kade take care of her, please"

"Like my own Ranger and we're talking every day, we could even meet up and show those folk of Trenton that two rival companies can be civil, or not?"

"Babe use the phone I gave you just to talk with me, it's gonna kill me not to talk or touch you, please be careful and if need be I can have you out of there immediately, okay?"

"I'll miss you, I love you"

"Love you too Babe"

I left without looking back; building up my resolve for the next few weeks we had to play this game. I took a taxi to the international airport and flew first class back to Trenton. God I felt lonely already. Tank met me at the arrivals, with Santos.

"Good flight Ranger?"

"Yes, thanks, how're things going?"

"Good, you need to get out and about now you're back"

"Will do"

We purposely didn't talk about the operation we were into, too many eyes and ears, Tank had taken all the information from the war room away, so the men would assume that was the end of that investigation, what he had done was to transfer everything to seven, including all of Stephs new findings. Five was empty and to be honest there was a somber atmosphere. The men acknowledged me, but there was a feeling of resentment, they missed Steph and thought that I had deserted her. I went into my office and my first act of the day was to contact Pete.

"Hey Ranger, hear you've been out of town?"

"Yeah had work to do in Miami and spent a few days back in the homeland"

"Well I did get some news for you but I'll be honest the Intel keeps changing and files have gone missing"

"Who's responsible for that?"

"Not sure, can't get a bead on that, but I copied files as they came up so I have a history"

"So what's the latest on Steph?"

"Well one group of the FBI, those up in Washington State report she died in a local hospital. The group in Trenton says she's been transferred to high max prison, location unknown"

"Great, if she died is there going to be an investigation?"

"Oh that's where it gets interesting, the state guys want a full report of her takedown and the Trenton guys say there isn't one"

"Thanks Pete, I'm not sure what to do now, kind of hit a brick wall"

"Know what you mean, I'm sorry Ranger I know you felt a lot for her, I'll get to you if anything turns up"

"Thanks Pete"

Not very satisfactory news and there was nothing more I could do tonight. I was a little concerned though that I hadn't heard back from Don Matthews. Steph wouldn't be in Trenton until tomorrow. The only thing to do was work, so that's what I did. The core team had a meeting in the morning so hopefully we could move on something.

I struggled to get to sleep; I missed my Babe by my side.


	11. Chapter 21 & 22

Chapter 21

I'd spent the day with Angel yesterday and now had my full disguise in place, the appliance to my teeth and the Botox in my lips made a hell of a difference, did I feel different, maybe, I needed to play the part, be an actress, lie, now that I could do. So here I was in a dark grey Audi SUV travelling through the streets I knew so well. Kade had been brilliant and already I felt he was a close friend and as for Angel she was already a good friend. We pulled into a garage that was on the same level as the street and got out of the car, man the cars parked up looked awesome, dark grey and sleek, different models but all top of the range. I had a dark grey Audi TT turbo, leather seats as my personal vehicle. We travelled up to the next level and this is where I almost had a deja vue with the sight in front of me. There were the same banks of monitors and cubbies, a corridor with offices opening up from the hall, all exactly like in Rangeman. We walked into an office that had two names on the nameplate, my new name was Fern and Angel was Maddie, we were only going to use one name, less complications to remember. Our cover within the business was as Private Investigators and we had all the paperwork to go with it. Inside the office was a large table set up with computers, screens and a printer, several seats, a large board and Kade, sat with his feet on the table smiling.

"Ladies welcome to "Elite Services" our new company name, I have business cards here for you and if anyone looks into your background you're legit with a history. You two certainly look good"

We'd kept to the grey as the uniform, grey hipster jeans with narrow leg, black cat boots, grey roll necked long sleeved T-shirts, but had conceded with the pink and now had on black short leather jackets. Yeah you guessed, with a magic Kevlar lining. Angel had also insisted on her cat boots having an inch of sole to give her a bit more height.

"Your first assignment, should you choose to take it, is to spy on a Mr. Higgins, his wife thinks he's stepping out on her and wants the proof"

I tilted my head to the side.

"Is that Charlies Angels or Mission Impossible?

"The guys are calling you Kade's angels"

"What's the cover for the company?"

"We are a company providing investigative work, body guarding and event protection, may do some FTA work, but Ranger and I decided to do that only if we needed to show the community that we're in competition, and not friendly"

I sat down and looked at him.

"Steph basically everyone will be following their targets as agreed, so you two girls need to find Grossman"

Angel and I collected our bags and headed to the garage, we had some addresses to follow up. I drove as we felt that my knowledge of the area would be helpful while Angel kept an eye out for anyone following. The first address listed as Grossmans home had us both smiling, sat in the driveway was a grey SVU. I turned to Angel as I parked the car a few houses down.

"I suggest we watch for a while then go knock on his door, but we need a story"

"Hows about we've been employed to talk to him as a possible witness in the disappearance of Stephanie Plum, that we know at one stage he followed her so maybe he saw something"

"That's good, who's our employer?"  
"That's confidential information"

"Brilliant, let's go"

We walked with confidence and knocked on the front door, which was opened by a smiling Ben Grossman.

"Ladies how can I help"

Angel took the lead.

Mr. Grossman I wonder if we might come in and talk with you?"  
"Why would I let you in?"  
"We are Private Investigators and need to ask for your help with an investigation we're following"

I took out my PI card to show him and after a quick look he opened the door for us to follow him in. He led us into the first room, which was a lounge. Angel and I discussed that we never touch anything so as not to leave fingerprints.

"Can I offer you a tea or coffee?"

"No thanks, Mr. Grossman we are trying to find out the whereabouts of Stephanie Plum, we've been informed that at one stage you were following her and maybe you inadvertently saw something or someone"

"Oh it wasn't like that"

"Then what was it?"

He stood up and walked around the room, stopping and obviously thinking of his answer. The room had a lot of pictures and photos and one stood out.

"Ladies I don't know how to say this, but I was sure she was in danger"

"Why did you think that?"

"I don't know if I can tell you"

I got up diverting attention to me and picked up the photograph.

"Is this your father, Mr. Grossman, it looks like an old picture?"

"Why yes, it was taken during the war, he was from Hungary and as a Jew things got very bad over there"

"Is that his daughter, your sister?"

"No, No. That's Erzsébet, she had no family so father brought her here to America"

Yes, maybe I'd found our mysterious woman. Erzsébet could be Elizabeth, maybe in a different language? And the last part could give you Beatrice? Maybe?

"She's a very pretty little girl, what's her last name?"

"What? Why are you asking?"

"Well my name is actually Feny but people have shortened it and changed it to Fern, I am really interested in names and the sound of them in a different language, in fact my name is firstly a Hungarian name, don't you find names interesting Mr. Grossman?"

All right I was trying to talk him to death so he'd give in.

"I suppose so. I never really thought about it. Her name was Erzsébet Lange. Now back to your original conversation please"

"Mr. Grossman who do you think Miss plum was in danger from?"

"I don't know anything and I think you should leave"

I turned to Angel and whispered, "Get copy" then turned back to Mr. Grossman with a smile on my face.

"Mr. Grossman would you mind if I asked for some water?"

"Of course, come with me"

He led me into a kitchen and handed me a glass of water, I pulled down the cuffs of my T-shirt as I took the water and brought it close to my mouth but not touching then moved across to the sink pouring out the water.

"Thank you Mr. Grossman, I wish you would talk to us, a life may be at risk, do you want that on your conscience?"

I gave him a card and collected Angel out of the front room. As we got into the car she turned on her phone.

"Mic planted, record and report"

"Clever, you get a snapshot of that photograph?"

"Yes, well done, I thought you were going to talk him to death"

"I think it must be lunchtime"

"Stephanie are we going somewhere where there will be people you know?"

"You betcha, Pinos has the best food, lets go test out these disguises, but you do all the talking, my voice is too well known"

I drove to Pinos and parked out front, was I stupid coming here? Was I going to blow my cover? No be positive I want to know what people are talking about. Angel picked up on my dilemma.

"You sure Steph?"

As an answer I got out of the car. We walked into the restaurant amongst stares and whispers; yeah we had their attention. I found a booth, not one I ever sat in and picked up the menu, Angel sat next to me so we both had a full view of the room. I pointed to a chicken salad for my choice and Angel chose the same with two waters. There were a few people I recognized but no one I knew well, until of course Morelli walked in. I whispered to Angel who he was and she smiled.

"Let's have some fun"

Angel sent a dazzling smile across to him, and like the moron that he was, he sauntered over to stand next to our table.

"Ladies, new in town?"

"Yes, we're new, just checking out the local haunts and getting to know the lay of the land, so to speak, so who are you?"

"I'm Detective Morelli, Trenton PD, but you can call me Joe, and you?"

"I'm Maddie and this is Fern, pleased to meet you"

Oh Maddie was really flirting with Joe and I could see him preening at her attention, I stayed quiet not wanting to get involved.

"You working locally then"

"Yes, we work for Elite Services as Private Investigators"

"That the new outfit with the grey cars?"

"Yes it's new but growing fast"

"I'll bet Manoso is happy with that"

"Sorry, do you mean Rangeman?"

"Yeah they have a bit of a monopoly round here"

"I hear the boss was involved with the girl who bombed that bank?"

"Not really, she was a wild card, probably deserved whatever happened to her"

"So you want to show me the town one night, Joe?"

"Love to, let me put your number in my phone"

"Here, it's on my card, we need to move, work to do"

"I'll call you"

I stood up and had to very carefully control myself, out in the car I didn't speak nor when we got back to our new building, but inside my office I screamed and started to hit the wall. I admit I lost it, lost control and it took Kade to physically bear hug me from behind and lift me off the floor.

"Angel what the fuck happened?"

"Morelli, I've got a sedative ready"

With that I felt a prick in my arm and as I felt my muscles relax the world went black.

Chapter 22

I had a call from Kade last night to get over there, as they had an emergency. We'd arranged that if anyone needed to enter that building we'd use the rear exit and wear clothes to cover our identity; I had on blue jeans and a grey sweatshirt with the hood pulled up. Kade must have been watching out for me as he opened the door himself.

"Level three, apartment 4"

I gave him a questioning look but took off up the stairs. When I entered the apartment Angel was stood at the bedroom entrance and beckoned me in, I stopped at the door to see my Babe asleep in the bed. A raised eyebrow, I needed an answer from Angel.

"I had to sedate her, she lost it on the wall in the office, even Kade had a job holding her, we ran in to Morelli, and he said something that just sent her over the edge, to quote he said "she was a wild card, probably deserved whatever happened to her" I'm sorry Ranger but I thought it best if you were with her when she woke up, which should be soon. I'm going to hitch up with that bastard and find out what his game is"

"Thanks Angel, but be careful with him I really don't know what he is up to"

I undressed and slid into the bed, Steph was restless so I assumed she was nearing conscientiousness. I held her firmly in my arms, my face next to her hers and started to talk in Spanish to her. Her movements relaxed and I felt her still. I smiled as she opened her beautiful blue eyes.

"Why are you here?"

"I'm told you tried to beat the shit out of a wall and Kade"

"Oh, I can't really remember, I was just seeing red"

"Tell you what, I'll get Tobi to show you how to beat the shit out of a punching bag, less damage to your hands"

I picked up her hands seeing the scrapes and bruising on her knuckles and gently kissed them.

"I'm sorry, I lost it"

"De nada. What he said deserved him being beaten up, you did well to stay in control long enough to get out and get back here"

"I don't understand why he would say something like that"

"Angel will sort him out, maybe he's still upset or maybe he has a guilty conscience"

"Yeah, I got more information today. Grossman had a photo of his father and a little girl, she was called Erzsébet Lange, his father brought her over to the states, I think he thought she was Jewish, I don't, so we have a name to follow now, that's if there are any records left from Hungary"

"Why don't you research that tomorrow and work with Tobi, stay here and let Angel do her stuff with Morelli?"

"Okay"

You feeling better now?"

"Yes, you're here"

"Good because I haven't slept properly since I left you, I missed having you next to me"

"I missed you too, ended up with nightmares again"

I wrapped myself around her and placing her head onto my chest kissed her head.

"Sleep Babe"

My Babe was still sleeping when I woke, it was late for me so I slipped out and showered redressing in the clothes I had come in. I left a note for her so she would know I was still in the building and went to find Kade. He was in his office with Tobi.

"That's a hell of a bruise Kade from a little white girl?"

"Shit Ranger she was wild, how do you mange her?"

'You obviously don't have the knack. Tobi a favor, can you teach her to use the bags and maybe some hand to hand?"

"Haven't you done that yet?"

"No, she's too stubborn and hates running, so training has always been a bit contentious, but I think because she doesn't know you, she'll do it and probably be very good"

"Yeah, love to, I bet if I can focus her energy and anger, we'll get results fast, she has innate instincts, very intuitive"

"Thanks Tobi, I told her to stay in today, work with you and do some searches on that name they found"

"Angel told me, I think it's time to put a little pressure on Grossman"

"Agreed, tell Angel to be careful with Morelli, he has a family reputation that I wouldn't like to see appear"

"She's good at her job Ranger, and she'll be wired and have backup"

"Good. I'll take some breakfast up to Steph then I need to get back to Rangeman, catch up with you later"

I found some bread, cheeses, bagels and fruit, made some coffee and took it up to the apartment, Steph was in the shower so I set the things on the breakfast bar and waited for her.

"Morning Babe"  
"Morning Carlos, sorry you ended up having to come over, but I'm glad you did"

"So am I, how are you feeling this morning?"

"Much better thanks, I think because I got rid of my anger I feel ready to get my teeth into doing something productive"

"Good, I spoke with Tobi, he's looking forward to working with you. Turn around and let me see your back"

Steph turned and dropped the robe she was wearing from her shoulders to reveal her bare back. The bruise had just about gone and the small incisions looked healed. I kissed her gently from the nape of her neck down to the bruises.

"Healed nicely and the bruise has almost gone, how does it feel to you?"

"Doesn't hurt at all, good as new"

"If you start to feel any pain then stop the workouts, OK?"

"Will do"

"You could probably do to still gain a bit of weight back"

"Does that mean I can eat doughnuts?"

"Yeah Babe, I have to go now so remember you said you'd stay in for today, I'll speak with you later. Love you amante"

"Te amo"

Taking her in my arms I kissed her, deepening with open mouths and tongues exploring, until I felt her sinking into me, then pulled away and with a kiss to her forehead, nose and lips turned and walked from the apartment. I returned to Rangeman, careful not to be seen and entered through a back exit door, I'd sent a message to Tank to scramble the camera over the door and open it for me. He was waiting as I entered and we went straight up to seven. Once inside my apartment I informed him of the girls' events from the previous day.

"Is my Little Girl gonna be all right?"

"Yes, she's resilient, I've asked Tobi to work with her in the gym on boxing and some hand to hand"

"Hope you warned him to wear a box, you know her knee can be lethal"

"He'll learn"

Laughing we turned to the boards and added the updates. A knock at the door and Santos came in holding papers in his hands.

"Find something?'

"No the opposite in fact. I've been checking on the road trip Beautiful took and am drawing a blank, whoever set it up was real careful at keeping any knowledge of a person responsible out of the loop. Hotels and flights booked on line using a card that was stolen from some poor shmuck out in Tennessee a couple of months ago, for some reason he never realized that he'd lost it, says it's a card he only randomly uses. Anyway he checks out. The bike, when I spoke to Juan, he says it's come from a chop shop; no two parts came from the same bike, brilliant job, and any parts with identification from stolen ones. I had Juan chase up any video footage from the parking area, they show an empty space one day and the bike there the next, footage for in between was missing due to vandalism, cash paid into a machine close to the where the bike was parked so again no footage. Who ever set this up really knew what they were doing"

Hell we were going round in circles on this. Today I had to meet with new clients so changed into a suit, as Steph would say my CEO look, and left the building with Tank for our meetings, today would be long and boring with a focus on business.


	12. Chapter 23 & 24

Chapter 23

I'd dressed in gym attire and was meeting Tobi down in the gym this morning, what the hell had I let myself agree to? I had done a real good job at staying away from exercise, I just hoped he took pity on me. He led me to the mats and started to show me some stretches and moves to help warm up. I'd not really taken much notice of the guys here with Kade, they all had the same physique as the Merry Men, showing they obviously worked out, but Tobi was slimmer and probably a similar height to Carlos with wide shoulders and slim hips, he had straight brown hair which came to his collar and pale blue eyes, he must have spent time in the sun to acquire a tanned skin but there were also scars revealed when he was in his gym clothes showing the battles he'd been through.

"This is called a five minute dynamic warm-up routine, so always do it before exercise so you don't pull any muscles"

He helped to support me and encouraged me all the time, so I was feeling better. That is until we stood face to face on the mats and he had put a blindfold over my eyes.

"Steph I want you to close your eyes and use those senses of yours. Focus on only me, I'm going to move around you then I'll suddenly try to touch you, I want you to feel where I am and anticipate when I touch you"

I calmed myself, I didn't like the dark, too many memories of the dark, but Tobi seemed to sense my discomfort and he continued in a low, steady voice giving me directions. At first he was so close behind I could feel him breathing

"Breathe with me, match it to mine, good, now focus on me and my energy"

That actually seemed to work and I felt myself being aware of only him, even when he moved back away from me I could sense his presence. As he slowly moved around, I somehow how knew where he was and found myself turning towards him.

"Excellent, now if you feel I'm coming toward you raise your arm and point at me, don't worry if you touch me, that's what we're aiming for"

I liked this, I knew I could do this; I focused on only his presence. It was strange, not the awareness I had to Carlos, but something else? Hell I couldn't even find the words to describe it. After ten minutes of doing that Tobi stood still.

"Okay take off the blindfold and I'm gonna show you how to prepare with your body, then I'll go through the movement for punching"

My eyes adjusted to the light to see a smiling Tobi.

"Told you you'd be good at this, you're a natural, now if we go through these moves slowly it will give you a chance to cool down a bit"

Yeah I could feel the heat on my face and I was beginning to sweat. Tobi moved around me adjusting my feet and hips then made me bend my legs and loosen my arms, he showed me how to balance myself as I moved, almost like a dance.

"Great now the arms and fists"

He put wraps on my hands and then fitted gloves over the top and led me to the bag swinging in the corner, as he held the bag he talked me through the movement I needed to do in order to hit hard without hurting myself. After I seemed to get the hang of it he told me to speed up and use what I'd learnt with my body position.

"OK now go for it. Speed it up and change where you're going to hit"

Now I could really get into this, it felt liberating and the longer I punched at the bag the harder and more effective my shots were.

"That's good, lets cool down those muscles then go soak in a bath. We'll come back to this later this afternoon and see how you put together everything you've learnt"

He undid the gloves and took off the wrappings then led me to the stairs.

"Stairs? Don't I deserve to use the lift?"

As he laughed he opened the stairwell door and pushed me through, oh well I did try. The bath was relaxing and I felt my muscles soak up the heat; I almost fell asleep until my stomach declared it was empty. Down in the kitchen I grabbed some juice and sandwiches then retired to my office to do some searches.

Erzsébet Lange was now on my hit list, Angel had downloaded the photo we'd seen at Grossmans house, so on a whim I loaded a headshot image into a program that would age her by 65 years. Maybe not truly accurate but if I then added different hairstyles maybe I could come up with a likeness. The search on the new name I had brought up nothing so I went into Google and started surfing, "Lang may also have originated as a Hungarian surname, from láng, meaning "flame," perhaps a descriptive name for a passionate individual, Lange is the 26th most common German surname, while Lang is the 46th most common" Interesting, could be Hungarian or German. I was going to say Hungarian, based on my gut reaction to her being Catholic, because in Germany the most popular religion was Protestant. All right then who was the father of Erzsébet Lange? After spending three hours searching there was nothing to find that linked everything together, but my spidey senses were buzzing when I looked more closely at the role that the Gendarmerie played during that time in history. After the Germans occupied Hungary in March 1944, the Gendarmerie was charged with putting the Jews in ghettos and then deporting them to extermination camps. They were in charge of confiscating Jewish property. They set up a "mint" in each of the ghettos, where Jews were tortured into revealing where they had hidden their supposed valuables. The Gendarmerie men were so cruel in their treatment of Hungary's Jews that even some Nazis were shocked at their barbarity. Was her father one of these men? I couldn't find anything and only one man seemed to have been brought to trial, Sándor Képíró, and even then he was found not guilty. In fact there was almost the feeling that politicians wanted to sweep any culpability under the carpet.

So with that lesson in history I returned to the gym to join Tobi, I felt that I had moved forward with my thinking on maybe the why and who, and that I could begin to bring some threads of evidence together. Tobi had me go through my warming up exercise then immediately wrapped my hands and put on some gloves.

"Now my invincible woman, you are going to focus on your inner senses and strength to use your skills to attack me"

"You make me sound like Yoda"

"Patience you must have, my young Padawan"

All right he was asking for it now, I stood in the middle of the mat, blindfold over my eyes and focused, blanking out all stimuli other than my senses. When I felt centered I took up my stance showing I was ready. Tobi started by coming at me slowly, but as I was able to connect my gloved hand every time he came close enough, he speeded up his approach and constantly changed the direction he was coming from. Suddenly there was a change, a shift of the feelings I was getting and reactively I turned and threw a strong punch.

"Shit Steph"

I removed the blindfold to see Kade flat on his back rubbing his jaw.

"My young Padawan you have excelled with your training"

I gave Tobi a glare then bent down to Kade.

"I am so sorry I didn't mean to hit you"

"Bonita to say I'm impressed is an understatement"

The two of them decided to up the game, both donned protective head gear and mouth guards and we repeated the practice with both taking it in turns to attack, I had great fun and found as time went on I was getting better and faster. Kade stepped back.

"Enough, time to get freshened up, Angel has a date tonight, so have dinner with us Bonita and then we can listen in to her conversations with Morelli afterwards"

That could be interesting but I needed to make sure I was calm, and dare I say centered for that experience? No way was I going to let anything that scumbag say get to me.

I showered and changed into jogging trousers, T-shirt and hoodie, as I wanted to be comfortable. I called into my office pleased that the photo now had provided an aged face with several hairstyles. I opened my phone and called Kade.

"Kade do you have a face recognition program?"

"Yes, I'll have it on your computer in a minute, you got something?"

"Maybe, when I have enough, I'll let you know"

I left my computer running through faces to compare with the aged, multi hairstyle images, knowing my luck I'd end up with hundreds, then went down to eat dinner with Kade, Tobi and Jobe. The rest of his crew was supporting Angel as backup. Kade had gone all out for our meal.

"You're going to know why the west coast has the best food, Bonita"

Homemade cream of asparagus soup, shrimp and corn chowder (Locro de camarón y choclo), Apple cider roasted pork loin, Avocado and salmon tartare with mango habanero sauce, Crab salad stuffed avocados, garlic chips. We had the soup first and yes it was very good, but come on I'd had this soup before locally, but when the rest of the plates were set onto the table I moaned at the intoxicating smells. I put a small amount of each dish onto my plate to try, one at a time, to truly appreciate the flavors and had to admit that their taste was unique.

"Get that man of yours to visit us sometime and we can take you to the best restaurants in the area"

Not sure I ever wanted to go near Washington State again but I didn't want to spoil the sentiment by saying anything. We cleared the dishes back into the kitchen and then went into a small conference room to listen in on Angel on her date. I decide to sit on the floor up against the wall, not sure why, but I got the most comfort in that position. Kade and Tobi got up from their chairs and joined me on either side, Jobe looked and shrugged.

"Where's my place?"

"Here"

At that, Kade shuffled behind me, my back against his chest so Jobe could take his place. Sheesh did I look that needy? Not that I was going to complain, I felt pretty well cocooned by these men and knew they were thinking of me and maybe giving me support. The voice of Angel came through loud and clear with the hum of talking, cutlery and laughing. If I had to guess they were in Rossinis.

"Nice place Joe"

"Yeah, has a reputation for good food and the surroundings are better quality than some of the other local restaurants"

Okay I was tuning in and out of this conversation, they went through the usual chat up lines, where from, work and why Trenton. Joe didn't mention his family ties, which was interesting. Angel stuck with what she knew, which was Seattle, I bet Joe didn't even know where that was. Joe stuck to the rich creamed Italian dishes while Angel went with a healthier fish dish; good I hope he has a heart attack. When they finished even I felt the tension in the atmosphere, but Angel came through.

"So you going to show me where you live and we can have a night cap, I live where I work so no privacy?"

"Err sure, why don't you follow me in your car?"

Now why was he being so reticent, normally he'd jump at the chance, thinking they'd be in his bed in no time? Was he hiding something?

Once Angel was in the car her voice came over the speaker from her phone.

"What do you think Steph?"

"Something's off, he played down any family in the area and I would have thought he would have jumped at the chance to get you to his house, I think he's hiding something"

"Well I'm prepared"  
"What?"

"Not like that, I've got a vial that will knock him for six, and he'll think he was drunk with a hangover in the morning. When he's out the guys will come in and help search the place, gotta go we're stopping"

There was the sound of doors opening and closing, and footsteps until they were obviously inside.

"This is nice Joe, you lived here long?"

"A few years, still trying to update it, go sit down, you want a beer?"

"Yeah that'll be good"

Again he didn't mention he inherited the house from his Aunt, and where was Bob? Hell I missed that big orange shaggy hound. There was the sound of glasses on the table; strange he only ever gave me the bottle.

"Could I have some ice and water as well please that meal sure made me thirsty?"

Sounds of movement and then Angel whispered.

"Here goes"

"Here you are Maddie"

"Thanks Joe, well here's to new friends"

Their conversation continued, they talked about their favorite films and then moved on to music, by this time Joe was slurring his words and Angel had been to top up his beer. There was a long time interval with nothing, no sounds then Angels voice came over through the phone.

"Okay I've called the guys in, he's flat out"

"Angel did you touch any of your drink?"

"No, why?"

"I don't know, but he never served beer from a glass before"

"I'll bring a sample in, we're on our way upstairs"

There was a lot of rummaging, doors and drawers opening and closing.

"Can't find anything Steph, any ideas?"

"The basement"

"Where's the door to get down there?"

I had to think for a moment.

"As you come down the stairs it's the first door on your right before the kitchen"

"It looks like a small cupboard with coats and shoes"

"No, it's there"

"Oh, sneaky, there's a false wall that pushes out from the cupboard, let me get a torch"

"Oh shit Steph"

"Angel?"

"It's okay, found the light switch, hell Steph everything here is about you or looks like it belonged to you. I'm gonna do a video scan to capture everything"

"Angel, is my leather coat there?"

"Sure is, I'll get it in the video then bring it back with me"

"Get out Angel, use the back door something's wrong"

I was getting an intense feeling something bad was going to happen, I was shaking and near to hyperventilating. Tobi was on the phone to the two guys with Angel giving them instructions to extricate immediately, while Kade had me in a fierce hold.

"Breathe in and out with me, focus Bonita, on me"

I closed my eyes and pulled my head down and followed his breathing, eventually calming down. Once in charge of how I was feeling I nodded to Kade and he released me, I got to my feet and started to pace, willing Angel to appear. The speaker came on, and I stood still, looking at the guys.

"Kade this is fubar, someone came in the front as we were at the back and started a fire in the front room, we dragged Morelli out and left him in the back yard, but the house is going up like a bonfire"

"Gaz, everyone out and return"

"Confirmed"

It took them ten minutes; it seemed like an hour, before the three of them walked into the room. Angel walked straight to Kade and gave him a hug before coming to me.

"Angel, are you OK?"

"Of course"

I looked at the two men who had returned with Angel, Gaz and Sam, and they nodded back to me.

"Can we listen in on the police band?"

"Good idea Bonita"

Angels phone went rang at that moment and because it was still on speaker phone we all heard Morellis voice, the room took on a deathly hush as we all listened.

"Maddie, it's Joe, are you there?"

"Joe, yeah I'm here"

"Maddie did you get home all right?"

"Sure Joe I left you asleep on the couch, you feeling better now"

"Maddie was there anyone around when you left?"

"Not that I noticed, why Joe?"

"There was a fire here, god the whole house went up"

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I don't know how, but I woke up outside"

"Maybe a fireman?"

"Yeah maybe, anyhow I'll catch up with you, but I've got to sort this out"

"No problem Joe, goodnight"

What the hell had happened at Joes tonight? What had he got himself into? The phone I was carrying went off making me jump.

"Babe?"

"Sorry the phone going off made me jump"

"Have you heard about Morelli?"

"You could say that"

"Babe?"

Yeah I now knew he was using that name to question me, as in what are you talking about.

"Angel was there with Gaz and Sam when, in their words, it went fubar, but they're here and everyone's fine. Do know what happened?"

"Only what went out on the emergency frequency, they have any idea?"

"Listen I'll put you on speaker, then they can tell you what they saw"

Everyone crowded around me, while I held my phone out in front of me.

"Gaz here, we were all inside the house, in fact Angel was on her way out, and Sam and I were clearing the area. Angel told us to leave the house, that Steph thought something was wrong. We heard the front door open then smelt the smoke and heard the whoosh, so I'd say they used an accelerant. Didn't see anyone, nor was there unusual activity outside before we went in. I'd say we were very lucky to get out, or unlucky to be there in the first place. We moved Morelli out 'cos Angel had him out cold"

"There's no other info out there yet, I'll get Tank to talk to Eddie in the morning. Angel a successful mission?"

"Yes, but I think you need to see what we found"

"Give me an hour and a half"

Then he hung up! Obviously I wasn't going to get any thing from Angel until Carlos got here.

"Well I'm going to my office to finish up something"

"Bonita, meet in the large conference room when you're ready"

I returned to my office to the sweet sound that said my facial recognition program had finished. I picked up the printed sheets, hell there seemed a lot, I sat on the floor, yeah the floor was my favorite go to place now it seemed, and started going through them. In one pile I put the possibles and on another I put the rejects. It was strange because once I started to analyze the names that had come out, the program had matched several of the images to one woman. I knew immediately I really had found our mysterious woman. Quickly I ran a search on her, I'm sure I recognized the name, Elspeth Langman.

Advocate for far and extreme right wing political groups, all right things were falling into place. I prepared everything I'd found to present to the group at our meeting and headed for the conference room.

I was first into the room so spent the time connecting my laptop to the screen, no mean feat for me, where was Hector when you needed him? People started to drift in with Carlos coming in last, he walked straight up to me and gave me a passionate kiss, who cares that we had an audience, well me, especially when the cat whistles started, we broke apart with me staying at the front. Carlos sat down next to Kade.

"I'm starting this meeting for two reasons, I have most of the whose and some of the whys and if I wait till Angel tells me what she found I'll probably be a bag of nerves"

"Go for it Babe"

As I spoke I brought up pictures and some pieces of the evidence I'd found.

"Tom Grossman brought a young girl into the states from Hungary, the names we have for her are Beatrice Lang, Charlotte Rains, Erzsébet Lange. I used a program to age the photo Ben Grossman had of his father with the young girl and using an aging program and different styles of hair found this woman with the facial recognition program, name Elspeth Langman. Advocate for far and extreme right wing political groups. She is one of the main players in this, and I think part of her game plan was personal to you Ranger as a successful businessman from an ethnic minority group. I am sure her father was part of the Gendarmerie in Hungary responsible for some brutal acts toward Jews and rich people and also for taking money, and property. I think the bank may have had details of names but I think it's more than likely it's the location of money or valuable property. I want Grossman in here tomorrow because I think she got to him and his conscience eventually won out"

"An extreme right wing group would tie in with the bikers that caused the distraction, FBI agent Langley wanted the contents of the box, so you were set up to take the fall and Hickman gave out the inside knowledge of when it would happen, Babe I think you're spot on with this, I agree with you about the names, a lot would be dead and beyond prosecution for war crimes"

Angel stood up next and took my place at the front, I walked over to Carlos, I needed his strength, he moved his chair back from the table for me to sit on his lap, his arms folding around me. Angel looked at me and began.

"According to Steph, Morelli hasn't been acting in character and I think I know why. He is totally infatuated by her and if as you say Steph, he was the one who shot you, I think he is in a state of depression brought on by guilt. In the basement he's put together, well I can only say a shrine to you Steph"

On the screen came the image from the basement, there were hundreds of pictures of me, some posed some without my knowledge, newspaper articles even photos of me as a child? Scattered on tables around the room were some of my possessions. Hell he must have broken into my apartment, my cookie jar, Ghostbuster DVD, some ornaments I'd had on the shelves and some I'd kept in boxes as keep sakes. Dresses, that little black dress he always liked, a negligee. I looked in horror as the scene unfolded on the screen, any picture with someone else and he had blacked out their face, he even had the cage that belonged to Rex with a soup can inside. I took a deep breath, how did I feel about this? OK relieved that he wasn't part of the whole group responsible for what had and was happening to me, anguish for him in seeing how badly he was coping, sad that he was so insecure, but also so annoyed because as usual all of this was about him. Carlos gave me a squeeze to get my attention and Kade gave me a look of concern, was I going to fly into a rage needing to be controlled, or hysterics needing to be consoled? Neither, I was actually in control of how I felt and having gone through my thoughts and feelings I didn't feel anything for him, so I wasn't going to display any extreme emotions. I stood and faced the group.

"All right we can discount him as part of the bad guys, but he shot me and nearly killed me so he will pay for that. Angel the coat?"

Everyone seemed lost for words as they simply sat there looking at me. Eventually Carlos came to me and loud enough, as I think he thought he was voicing the thoughts of everyone, asked me.

"Babe are you sure you're all right with this?"

"Maybe not all right, but I'm not surprised or upset if that's what you're asking?"

"So proud of you Babe, you are one of the strongest, most resilient people I know"

"Thank you, now where's that dam coat"

Angel produced the coat from a bag and handed it to me, I went into the right hand pocket and undid the small hidden plastic zip, then carefully pulled out my phone and pressed the on switch, and pressed it again, and again. Carlos prized it out of my hands.

"Babe it probably needs charging"

"Shit I want to see that video"

"Patience my little Padawan"

I glared at Tobi and Carlos raised an eyebrow at him.

"Ranger you have got to watch her in the gym, she'd put a Jedi knight to shame and she caught Kade with a brilliant right cross"

"You have it on video?"

"Oh yeah"

I gave Tobi one of my famous Burg glares.

"You wait' I'll get you back"

I moved to sit down and put the coat across my knee, as the rest were talking about what had happened at Morellis, I was stroking the leather and my finger caught in a hole. Hell that must be where the bullet hit me, so if there's a hole in the outside but it didn't go through the inside lining, I wonder? I lifted the coat up by the collar and then started to squeeze along the hem. I wasn't really aware of the others, and when I felt a small lump I jumped up.

"Yes"

Everyone looked at me as if I was losing it.

"I've found it, I can prove he shot me"

"Found what?"

That almost came in unison from everyone.

"The bullet he shot me with"

Carlos took the coat from me.

"Babe we'll get the bullet out and then have the lab carry out some forensic ballistics and compare them to Morellis gun"

I smiled, and then turned to the group.

"Gaz, would you and Sam please bring in Mr. Grossman in the morning, make it early and leave him in a cell, then after training, Tobi, maybe you and I can have a little chat with him? I'm going to bed, Carlos?"

I flounced out of the room and toward the stairs, I heard laughter as the door reopened and Carlos caught up to me, unfortunately we also heard Angel shout out at us.

"Three weeks minimum, you're only two weeks in"

Shit I thought she'd forgotten. Carlos laughed at me.

"So did I"

"Out loud?"

"Yeah"

Chapter 24

I woke early to the warmth of my Babe around me; she'd slept well and was definitely healing. Her skills at finding a thread and connecting people still amazed me, I wanted to see the video from the gym Tobi had mentioned and then be here for when some deeper questions were put to Grossman and Hickman. I'd passed Stephs coat off for the guys in the lab to work on, Tank was going to talk to Eddie and Hector thought he'd made a breakthrough with the phone so I thought we were making progress. I'd shared Stephs thoughts as to why the plane and bomb had been targeting me so had put Rangeman up to an amber alert. The FTA Steph had been given was nowhere in Trenton, Santos had scoured the streets, no doubt he was onto the next demonstration and the name and information were bogus. Why Vinnie bails out these idiots is beyond me, but maybe the bike could give us something, I sent Santos a message to call at the bonds office, check the gossip on the street from Connie and Lula then get hold of the bike. I slowly slipped out of bed and changed into gym wear to put in an hour. When I returned Steph was up and dressed.

"You going to the gym Babe?"

"Yes I owe Tobi one"

"Just be careful of your back, you still have some healing to do"

"Will do, you going back to Rangeman?"

"No I'm here for the morning, so catch you for lunch?"

"That would be good"

She sashayed out of the room, I noticed how much more confident she was. Next I wanted to watch her gym session from yesterday. I could only access it from Kade's office so I used a spare desk to see for myself how she managed to get Tobi so smitten. I watched in fascination at how Tobi perceived her intuitiveness and how she adapted so well. Kade came behind me and was also watching; I think he actually flinched when she caught him on the chin.

"You know she's absolutely in control of her surroundings"

"Yeah I can see, Tobi has really worked out how to get the best from her, maybe that's why she always closes her eyes when she shoots her gun?"

"Whey, that's scary"

"Yes, that's why we gave up in the end trying to get her on the range, the men were worried if she always closed her eyes there might be an accident"

"Why don't you go down there, Tobi is going to teach her how to block this morning"

"I'll watch first, the problem is she'll know I'm there if I turn up"

"Really?"

"It's always been like that, we can sense each other, almost connect. When she was shot I swear I felt it"

"Obviously your soul mate then, your other half, man I'm real pleased for the both of you, even if she can be so dam stubborn and erratic"

I watched the monitor as Tobi was slowly taking her through the moves to block a strike, he was very patient with her, but she was learning fast as demonstrated when he speeded up. Next he had her blindfolded, in full protective wear, she stood in the center of the mats and seemed to go calm, and then he started to move around her. Steph followed his every move and when he went to hit her she blocked and returned to her ready position. As fast as he went at her, she blocked him, she really was incredible.

"Gaz and Sam have brought Grossman and Hickman into the cells in the basement, but they need to sweat for a while"

"Thanks Kade, I'll go down to the gym first then head down to the cells, I want to observe on Grossman, but hell, I want Hickman personally"

"You got it Ranger"

I went quietly into the gym, both Tobi and Jobe were now taking shots at her, and as soon as I passed through the door she stopped held her arms and shouted.

"Stop, if you think Ricardo Carlos Manoso you're gonna join in, then the answers no"

Tobi and Jobe grinned and Tobi took a step back.

"Why don't you really show him what you can do Padawan?"

"Babe?"

I could see her smile; she knew I wouldn't hurt her.

"I'm game, bring it on"

I got rid of my boots, shirt and of course weapons and went and stood in front of her, if I could see her eyes they'd be looking right at me. I can move very quietly and did so as I began to circle her, but she followed every inch of my movement, as I went to strike she blocked, then taking me by surprise, she swept my feet from under me, causing me to fall flat on my back. I quickly flipped back onto my feet and this time was more prepared for a reaction from her. We parried for at least ten minutes after which I shouted.

"Enough"

Steph removed her blindfold and jumped at me wrapping her legs and arms around me, I barely kept my balance. Tobi was laughing.

"You know I kept a score of all body shots that found their target don't you?"

Steph shrugged her shoulders.

"Padawan you did me proud you got 8 body strikes in, Ranger you got 6 body shots in"

"Really? I won?"

"Babe you are indeed a Jedi warrior"

Steph just about danced out of the gym, she was euphoric.

"Tobi was that the right score or were you just boosting her?"

"Oh no Ranger, she beat you fair and square"

With that I went into the shower, then dressed, while a laughing Tobi and Jobe left.

Kade, Steph and I met down in the observation room looking in at Grossman. His cell was painted white with only a table and three chairs in the room. One wall had a bed folded and secured against it. The lights were bright and there wasn't any sound. We could see the insides on a large monitor showing a video feed from a camera positioned in the corners of the room.

"How are we playing this, he's already scared shitless so I don't think we need to rough him up?"

"Kade you go in first, then Steph, I'll give any ideas or questions through the ear bud"

"Fair enough, you OK with that Steph?"

"Yes"

Steph was stood looking at him and she was radiant, still slightly flushed from the work in the gym, but she was carrying herself with an air of confidence. Kade went into the cell and sat down opposite Grossman, he hadn't been shackled, as we didn't see him as a physical threat.

"Mr. Grossman, do you know why you are here?"

"No"

"Okay, I know you have some information to tell me about Stephanie Plum"

"Oh god no, I couldn't help her"

"Why do you think you should have helped her?"

"I don't know"

"Mr. Grossman did you want to hurt her?"

"No. No, I would never hurt her"

"Then who would?"

"I don't know, oh god that poor girl"

Steph turned and headed out of the door.

"Lets see if I can loosen his memory"

When she walked into the cell I thought Grossman was having a heart attack, he stared at her, his mouth opening and closing, and his breathing came out in short breaths. Of course, he'd only seen her recently in her disguise; he obviously didn't know that Steph was alive and well here in Trenton. Steph sat down next to Kade and put her hand on Grossmans, as if to prove she was actually there.

"You're alive, you're here, and they didn't make you disappear?"

"Mr. Grossman, can I call you Ben?"

"Err yes of course"

""When did she call you?"

"How did you know?"

"I know these things, so when Ben?'

"It must be about four months ago"

"What did she want?"

"She wanted to know where my father had put some documents, but I didn't know anything about them"

"And when she called you again?"

"She wanted to know everything about you?"

"Did she tell you why?"

"She said you were the key, I didn't understand her, she said you were the one, brave and strong, that you should have been her granddaughter not someone else's"

"Did she send someone to talk to you?"

"Yeah this middle aged man turned up and said I had to do as she said"

"But you didn't did you Ben? Would you recognize him again?"

"Yes I would"

"What did he ask you to do?"

"To spook you into running away, and maybe hurt you"

"You didn't Ben, so you have nothing to be afraid of from us"

"No I couldn't scare you or hurt you, I hated following you, but I kept getting messages telling me where you were, so I did follow you for a short time, then you disappeared"

"Has she, or this man, spoken to you since I disappeared?"

"No, but two women were at the house the day before, yesterday asking questions"

"Ben do you know why your father brought her into this country?"

"Not really, I was born here in America, my father met my mother here, by then she'd disappeared"

"So how did you know who it was when she phoned?"

"She told me that she was the child my father had helped to get to America, and that her name was Erzsébet"

"Ben do you have any idea who her father was?"

"No, my father wouldn't talk at all about Hungary, he was Jewish and said it was a time to forget, he had too many bad memories"

"Do know where he might have hidden any papers, or do you have anything, that your father may have left with you?"

"No he burnt everything, even articles he had written, in fact after that he didn't write anymore, he lost some part of himself, I put it down to the stress of what happened to him during the war. I don't think there's anything of his left"

"Ben, someone is still trying to hurt me, do you want them to do that"

"No. No of course not, I'll do anything to help you"

"Then you must not tell a soul that you've seen me and if she calls, or that man, you must let us know. Can I trust you Ben?"

"Yes, on my mothers grave I will help you, I'll do anything to help"

"Thank you Ben"

On that note Steph and Kade left the room and joined me in observation.

I turned to Steph.

"Babe, what do you think?"

"I actually believe him"

"Why?"

"Because he has nothing to gain from lying, and I genuinely think that woman is a manipulative bitch who wanted something in the bank, I just can't work out why she chose me?"

"Babe, I think you're right about Grossman, so Kade, let him go, but put trackers on him and bug any phones he has"

"Agreed, I'll get Gaz and Sam on it, maybe if they act real friendly he'll be more co-operative if anyone gets to him"

"Babe, I don't want you anywhere near Hickman, he could be violent and I don't want him to know you're still alive or here"

"Can I watch, maybe use the mic?"

"Yes of course you can, you're good at reading people"

Both Kade and I went into the cell, he'd been shackled because we knew he had some skills, Kade sat down while I lent against the door, arms crossed over my chest, expressionless. I would let Kade lead the conversation first; maybe Steph would have some questions to spook him.

"Hickman my name is Kade and I am investigating the disappearance of Stephanie Plum"

"So?"

"So why were you helping her to get Stephanie into trouble?"

Good Kade had learnt from my Babe, let them know you know something already.

"I don't know what you mean"

"Sure you do, and we know as well, we just need to clear up a few points"

"Then you don't need me then do you?"

"Still need to find Stephanie, and I'm sure that being a suspect in her murder won't go down well"

"She wasn't murdered"

"Oh?"

"I know she wasn't"

"So the bullet that hit her in the back?"

"He said she would just go to jail"

"Well maybe he didn't tell you that you'd be joining her"

"What, I wasn't involved in that part"

"But you were by association, and you gave him the information of when Steph was going to be at the bank"

"You don't have any proof"

I stepped in at this point bending down to talk into his ear.

"Now that's where you're wrong"

"You can't have"

"You think we're that stupid not to be able to track your messages?"

Now he was beginning to get jittery, I'd hit on a weakness. Steph spoke into my ear.

"Do you think your father will be pleased when he hears how stupid you were?"

I repeated her question and got a blank face in return. Another question came from Steph.

"He'll be so disappointed in you, and it really wasn't your fault"

And again he looked stunned.

"You know he'll just blank you out again don't you"

Now I could see the direction she was going, so I picked up a question myself.

"It must be hard when you've tried so hard to please him, to make him notice you?"

"It's not like that, he said he'd get me in to work as an agent, he said I had to prove myself to him"

"The problem is we know what you did, you failed your father"

"No she'll make it right"

"You think your father will listen to her?"

"He has to, she said she'd make things right, that she wouldn't let the same thing happen to me like it did to her"

"You mean like her father and her?"

"Yes"

"Do you know what happened to her father?"

"She wouldn't tell me, something about being betrayed"

"So how do you think you can persuade her Hickman?"

"She'll make it right, she will"

"What about Stephanie, why her, your Grandmother didn't know her"

"No but she knew of her"

"Enough for Stephanie to die for?"

"She wouldn't let her have it, it wasn't hers to have, and she didn't deserve it"

"What didn't she deserve that cost her her life?"

"I don't know"

Steph was in my ear again.

"Why don't you call her and arrange to meet with her?"

"She only called me twice and when I tried to call her back the number had been disconnected"

I felt we had all we were going to get for now so nodded to Kade and we left the room. Steph was pacing, obviously thinking through what we had learnt.

"Babe I don't think he knows anything else that's going to help us"

"I know Carlos, well at least he confirmed that Langley is dirty and that he gave him information about me, and we got the tie to Elspeth. What will happen to Hickman?"

I looked at Kade and he gave me a knowing smile, then turned to Steph to explain how he wanted him dealt with.

"I think I might just have a crate destined for some third world country"

Steph just looked at him with wide eyes, then surprised me when she simply gave him a nod. Obviously not wanting to get any more involved with that she changed the subject.

"How's it going with my phone?"

"Not sure, why don't we go find out?"

I had plugged her phone in to charge up assuming the battery had died considering it was probably still switched on when Steph was in the bank. I retrieved it from the charger and handed it to her, her eyes held so much hope as she took it and pressed on the power button. A frown came across her beautiful face as her fingers kept pressing the button. She pushed the phone into my hands.

"I can't get it to work"

I looked at the phone and probably did the same thing as she had done, but it still wouldn't power up. I looked at her and saw the disappointment spread across her face, tears welling in her eyes, she had so many hopes riding on finding some answers in this piece of equipment. I took her in my arms holding her close by her head and at her waist.

"Shush querida it will be fine, I'll take it with me now and get Hector to fix it, OK?"

She nodded her head but said nothing, her brows furrowed in thought.

"Babe?"

"I need to talk to Grandma"

"Babe is that a good idea?"  
"Yes, this has something to do with my family, her family and she's the only one I know who could have any answers"

"Will she keep your existence a secret, you know how she loves to gossip?"

"Yes, if she knows how important it is, and she loves me so would never do anything to hurt me"

"All right I'll set it up, we need to meet up with her somewhere private so no one will know or see you"

"Thank you"

"Babe, would you let me talk with her first?"

"If you think that's best"

"I'll call you with a time and place and meet you there, get someone to drive you, please"

I knew she couldn't resist that request; I called on Kade on my way out and filled him in, asking if someone would stay with Steph when she met me. Then made my way back to Rangeman trying to work out how to have a conversation with Edna Mazur without Stephs parents getting involved. In the end I decided to approach the problem head on, I phoned their house. Luck must have been with me because Edna answered the phone herself.

"Mrs. Mazur, this is Ranger"

"Oh I remember you, you drive those black cars and have a nice package"

"Mrs. Mazur I really need to talk to you, but on your own"

"Really, why would you want to do that?"

"To talk about what's happened with Stephanie"

"I'm so upset, I don't know what to do"

"Well maybe between us we can solve some of your worries"

"Really?"

"But Mrs. Mazur this has to be between you and me, no one else is to know"

"Really?"

"Yes Mrs. Mazur"

"Well I'm supposed to be at a viewing tonight, then I was going to that new bingo center"

"How about if I meet you outside Stivas at 7pm, then after we have spoken, I'll drop you off at bingo"

"What a nice young man you are, always said you were"

"Till later then?"

"Yes, goodbye"

With that arranged I needed somewhere we could go that was out of the way and wouldn't attract attention. There was a safe house in Newark that should suit that task very nicely. I let Steph know and gave her the address; giving her the code needed to get in and asked her to be there before us so she could be in another room at the start of the conversation. That arranged I went down to see if Hector had sorted out the issue with the phone.

"Hector, alguna suerte?"

"No, it looks to be burnt out. Was Estefania hit with stun gun?"

"No, but we lost all of the electronics when she was in the bank didn't we?"

"Si"  
"Hector could they have used something to damage them?"

"Si, a microwave pulse or electro magnetic pulse"

"If they used something like that is there any way you could access the video?"

"I try, but not good"

Dam we were relying on that to give us some answers. It was getting late so I decided to change and dress casual for my meeting with Edna, grey slacks and cream cashmere jumper, a black jacket hid my weapons so I was ready to face Edna. I decided I needed to have a conversation when she got into the car, hell I was fed up with her constantly trying to grab me. Edna was waiting in the street outside of the funeral home, for her she was dressed very demurely in dark blue trousers, blouse and black jacket and shoes. Her bag seemed light as she carried it, so hopefully no gun inside. I pulled up beside her and she was in, with the door closed, before I had a chance to get out and open the door for her.

"Drive before someone sees us"

I was confident that the tinted windows would stop that.

"Mrs. Mazur . . ."

"Edna, call me Edna"

"Edna, I need to ask you to please not to grab me like you usually do"

"Oh, that takes a lot of my fun away"

"I appreciate that, but you're not always gentle and I really don't like it, please"

"Well when you ask so nicely, I suppose I'll give it a try, just don't temp me"

We travelled in silence through the streets, I'm sure Edna was trying to work out the reason for me asking to speak with her, I was making sure we didn't have anyone following us. I knew Santos was around because I'd asked him to shadow me and I'd disengaged all of my trackers, on the car and left my phone on seven. When we pulled up to the safe house I slid out of the seat and went round to help Edna out. How the hell she'd got into this SUV at the funeral home so dam quick was a mystery. We entered the house and went into the lounge to sit on the couch. Hal had been here earlier to set up a coffee machine and bring something to snack on, then he was patrolling at the back of the house.

"This is nice Ranger, coffee and cake"

"My pleasure Edna"

"So spit it out, I'm not into needless chit chat when you've obviously gotten something important to say"

"I appreciate you saying that Edna and I'll apologize in advance if what I ask might upset you"

"Can't get more upset than I already am, I know my baby girl's all right, but I don't know where, and I miss her so much and I'm so worried for her"

"You love her very much, don't you?"

"Of course, I'd do anything for her, she might as well have lived with me when she was little"

"Edna I think that perhaps you have something to do with what's happened"

"Don't be daft, I haven't been in any trouble recently"

"No Edna, but a long time ago, in your past"

"I don't understand"

"Steph asked you about an old friend you had, maybe a cousin?"

"Yes she did, Beatty, oh how that conjured up memories"

Edna went quiet as though she were remembering.

"Edna that young girl is now a woman your age, and she is responsible for hurting Steph"

"What, how, why would she do that?"

"That's what we need to find out"

At that point Steph walked through the door and stood looking at Edna, it took a moment for Edna to realize that there was someone else in the room, but when she did she stood up and opened her arms to Steph.

"Oh my poor Baby Girl, I knew you were all right, but I couldn't bare not knowing, everyone says you're dead or in prison"

Steph hugged her back being gentle with the now frail woman in her arms. Both had tears in their eyes. Steph was the first to pull away.

"Come on Grandma, it's not often someone brings me cakes, let's sit down and I'll try to explain and maybe you can fill in the gaps"

They sat down, with Edna pouring out the coffee into the mugs and Steph putting a cake in front of each of them.

"Grandma, do you remember when I asked about your friend Beatty?"

"Yes I do, I had dreams about her that night, old memories"

"Well she got in touch with me, supposedly asking for my help, in the end she got me hurt and now I could be in in a lot of trouble"

"Oh my dear, what do you need from me?"

"To talk to me Grandma"

"Well if I can"

"Grandma you always said you're proud to be Hungarian and I never really asked much about it"

"I am proud of it Steph, but I don't remember much, I was so young when we left, just a baby really. Your Great Grandmother brought me on her own, I suppose that's why I felt connected to Beatty"

"Grandma you said she might have been a cousin?"

"That's what she said, not sure if it was just a fancy thought of two young girls"

"Grandma I really need to know about your mother and father and what happened in Hungary, why you and your mother came here, but not your father"

"Oh Steph, not again, I don't know if I can go through all this again"

"What do you mean again Grandma?"

"Your dam mother, she went on and on until I had to say enough"

"Grandma we'll come back to mum later, I'm sorry, but I really need to know your story. Be proud of where you've come from Grandma and who you are"

"All right, let me get a refill"

I watched as Edna filled up the mugs of coffee and helped herself to more of the cake, Steph hadn't touched her cake at all; Edna was building herself up to start talking, she looked to be seeing into the past, her eyes glazed.

"Your Great Grandmother, my mother and I, came over here on our own. It was the only way. We spent weeks hiding out and moving around, father wasn't always with us. Apparently we were well off, I don't know much about it, and your Great Grandfather was a good businessman. Anyhow where we lived there was a mixture of Catholics and Jews and probably Protestants; we lived together, were friends together. Then things started to get bad, any Jews disappeared, and then they came after anyone who lived in those areas and just took everything, and not in a nice way if you know what I mean. We had nothing and nowhere to go, no money and then the talk of labor camps, so your Great Grandfather got us out"

I always wondered how Edna and her family survived in Hungary, I suppose you don't relate the history you know to the people you know, especially so many years later. Steph was quietly crying, holding her Grandmother, I went over and bent in front of them bringing them both into my embrace.

"Well that was then, I am proud to be Hungarian, but those people went through hell. What people did to each other was . . .?"

"Grandma I wish you would have told me. Maybe shared some of the pain"

"No child should have to carry that type of pain, and as I said I was too little to know about it or remember"

"Why was Mum at you about it, surely she should understand how you felt?"

"She got a bee in her bonnet, apparently some solicitor had been in touch with her, asking questions and pushing for information. She was trying to put together a family tree. When I asked her why she said it was her birthright and not some one else's. In the end I refused to talk to her"

"Edna did you and your mother bring anything with you into this country?"

"No we didn't have anything at all, father said he'd get something to us, but it never happened"

"Grandma thank you for sharing your story, but please don't tell anyone you've seen me or spoken to me"

"Baby girl, they're zipped and the key's with you. You young man, take care of her"

I stood up as Edna got up, obviously she felt our talk was finished, Steph and her hugged and kissed and I returned to the car with Edna to take her to bingo. Neither of us spoke the whole journey back; as we came to a stop by the hall she turned to me.

"You get this sorted or take her where no one can find her"

With that she scrambled out and walked into the hall without a backward glance. On the return to Rangeman I placed a call to Kade.

"How's Steph?"

"Well she started to beat the shit outta Tobi until he decided he wanted to live and stuck her in front of the bags, maybe we should borrow Tank for her"

"Real interesting conversation with her Grandmother that I think has stirred up feelings, hell probably guilt, because she was so naive as to what happened to her family in Hungary"

"So what next?"

"The phone is probably caput, I think Steph needs to work through some things. The ballistics came back on that bullet and we matched it to the record they kept at TPD on his service revolver, it was a match. I think Morelli has some explaining to do, so we need to bring him in for a little chat in the morning, but I don't want Steph anywhere near him"

"I'll get Angel to get her out of the building and the boys will bring him in, 1000? Ranger he's obviously not at his house or with family, Gaz reckons he's staying in an apartment, red brick place, you know who else we might find there?"

"Shit, I totally didn't think, that's Stephs apartment"

"Not a problem I'll get Sam to change the locks on the doors after he has him, see you here"

"Yeah I'll be there"

Back at Rangeman I got Tank up to speed, Cal had not found anything on the bikers and Hector said that whoever had sent the messages had deleted them and both were burner phones. As I got to seven I called Steph.

"Babe how you doing?"

"I beat the shit out of Tobi, then the bag so I feel OK"

"I miss being with you"

"I so miss you, I'm gonna take a long hot bath and think"

"What are you wearing at the moment?"

"My pale blue skimpy briefs and a matching lace bra"

"Take your bra off"

"Are you having telephone sex with me?"

"What does it sound like? Move your hand over your breasts, describe what you're feeling"

"It feels soft and my nipple is hard and I'm wet for you"

I could hear her moans down the phone, hell I was getting hard; I moved into the bathroom and continued the conversation.

"Move your hand into your briefs, into your curls"

"Oh god I feel so hot, I'm sliding my finger through my wet slit, what are you doing, can I hear the shower? That feels so good"

"I'm all soaped up imagining your breast in my hand and my finger about to plunge inside you, my hand is moving, thinking that it's your tight opening, I'm hard for you"

"I can feel you inside, sliding in and out, I'm massaging your sacs and tasting your pre cum"

"Oh god, my muscles are tightening"

"Rub and squeeze you clit, come for me Babe"

I heard her sounds through the phone, her breathing faster, hers moans more frequent, as I ministered to my own need by using my hand around my shaft, her shout had me give a final thrust and my ejaculation came with a force. I shouted out her name as the spasm of my organism went through my body.

"Me encanta Babe"

"Te amo Carlos"

Feeling slightly better I showered and getting into bed I slept and dreamed of making love to my Babe.


	13. Chapter 25 & 26

Chapter 25

I awoke from the dream and wanted nothing more than to return to it, I was making love to Carlos, so sweet and passionate, and full of love. I think I huffed instead of sighing as I got up and went to shower, as I looked at the bath I could feel my cheeks heat up. Oh my, did we really do that on the phone? The phone interrupted my thoughts.

"Hey Steph you fancy going out for breakfast?

"Angel that sounds like such a good idea"

"Meet me in the garage in 30"

I finished my shower quickly flattening my hair to my head and put on the wig, I used gel to style the hair up into spikes, and then got into my uniform, plus bigger boobs and hips. Cat boots, holster and gun, with the leather jacket over and I was on my way. Angel was standing by her new dark grey Audi RS 5; of course it had all the extras, guess she was driving today. As we got in she turned to me.

"I have found this great little diner out toward Hamilton Township, so that's where we're going"

I was okay with that; in fact it felt so good to be out doing something as normal as eating breakfast. The diner was unique; everything on the menu was home made and tasted like heaven. Having eaten a plateful of pancakes with maple syrup, croissants with blueberry jam I was stuffed. As we were leaving I noticed a farmers market, so we spent the next hour wandering from stall to stall buying all sorts of cold cuts, cheeses and bread.

"Angel if this is dinner then we have to get doughnuts for desert, I know just the place"

I directed Angel to the Tasty Pastry, not really thinking I was well inside the Burg. Well my disguise was good, no one was going to expect me to turn up here, so I opened the door and signaled Angel to follow. As I was closing the door I stilled. Behind me I could here my mother talking to someone, and if my ears weren't deceiving me she was talking with Dickie Orr. Now why would she be talking to him? My eyes caught Angels and I nodded my head toward them, luckily Angel seemed to catch on. She got out her phone and started to walk toward them. She was almost next to them making out that she was looking in the window at all the cakes. I walked past them all and into the shop. By the time I had picked out a dozen doughnuts and had them paid for and in a box, Angel was back in the car. We drove in silence through the streets. It was nearly 2pm so the office seemed like the best place to be, I wanted to hear what Angel had recorded on her phone.

"Who the hell was that?"

"That was my mother talking to the bastard who is my ex"

"Wow, you're gonna have to tell me the story on that one. So why's she talking to him?"

"Don't know and I don't like it"

"Ok tell me about the ex"

Yeesh, if I had a dollar for every time I'd told this story I'd be rich.

"I married when I was young and impressionable, and probably because he and my mother harassed me into it. You know, you're going to get left on the shelf Stephanie, no one else will ask you; he's perfect for you. Well I hadn't even opened all the marriage presents when I came home to find him screwing an old enemy of mine on our brand new dining room table. So I divorced him, and you know all those things a girl can do to get revenge?"

"Oh I bet that caused a stir?"

"Yeah but he took everything and left me with some of his debt, it almost finished me off"

"So your mother liked him?"

"He was a solicitor, what's not to like?"

After we left the car in the garage we headed up to our office, closed the door and attached the phone so the recording could come through a speaker, before hitting play Angel turned to me with a serious face.

"Do I need to get Tobi or Kade?"

Would I get upset or angry? Could I contain those emotions?

"No I'll be all right and if not I'll head to the gym"

We sat down and Angel pressed the play button, I was hearing my mothers' voice.

"Dickie I don't know what went wrong"

"She's your daughter, didn't she say anything?"

"No, I expected her to call me"

"What exactly did she want from you?"

"I told her everything there was to know about that daughter of mine"

"Well what are you going to do now?"

"I don't know"

"Why don't you get in touch with Beatrice she was the one who talked to you?"

"But where are the contents of the box?"

"No idea, but obviously Stephanie doesn't have them"

"Oh god she wasn't meant to get hurt, I did it for her"

"Ellen come on, you did it for you"

"Well, I'm next of kin"

"And Edna?"

"She's too old, and she wants to forget her heritage, so it's my right"

"Whatever Ellen, talk to Beatrice and see if she knows where the contents are, I'm finished with all of this"

The contents were meant for me? That's why Elspeth went to all the trouble of getting me to the bank so that Langley could steal them? What the hell was in that box, why didn't I take more notice? But who put the contents there in the first place? Shit am I stupid or what? I'd used my own id at the bank and they'd accepted it, did that mean I was the only person who could access it? And what the hell had my mother done to be involved with this? I'd obviously stood too long thinking because Angel was stood in front of me.

"You OK?"

"Yeah, thinking. We need to do some B & E"

Did I expect Kade to go nuts at me when I said I was going to break into a solicitor's office? Not really, though I must admit I hadn't really thought about how.

"Kade I'm not running off to do it, I came to you to help"

"Nice to know Bonita"

"Oh come on Kade I know I'm no good at the breaking in, but I'm hell with the entering and searching, and I usually get myself out"

"Tell you what, we put a team together and plan it"

"Fine, but it's got to be soon, Dickie has a habit of cleaning up real quick if he thinks he's gonna be got rid of, and I think he's a loose end"

"You have anything that will help?"

"Of course, Rangeman does the security on the building"

"I'll call the team, you take a nap, meet here at midnight, wear your cover, and black"

"Sir, yes sir"

I ran from the office before he either hit me or laughed at me. I decided to shower and be dressed ready so if I did fall asleep I could just get up and go out. I lay on my bed in my thinking position, that conversation rolling through my head. Had my own mother betrayed me for an inheritance? I wonder whose name was on the ledgers for buying my Great Grandmothers ticket? Yeah a random thought but maybe another thread to pull. I sent a message to Hector asking him to find out. I did doze still laid on my back with my head over the edge of the bed and a pillow over my face. I woke to the feel of kisses on my throat, my ear and my face.

"I know this girl who loves upside down kisses"

With that I lean up my head away from the bed to devour his mouth, my tongue seeking and gaining entrance, I held his head to me, deepening the kiss and changing the angle to intensify the passionate mating we had begun. Lips still touched but he'd pulled away.

"We have to go Babe, someone I know wants to do some B & E, and I'm your man"

"Oh indeed you are"

As usual with any mission these guys were planned and planned well. There were two men out back, Hal and Vince, two out front, Gaz and Sam and four to go in, Kade, Lester, Carlos and me. Tank was on the comms back at Rangeman, watching the monitors with the security cameras on. To me this seemed like overkill but I was just along for the ride, and to find some evidence, because I was bereft of it. There was no talking, all hand signals so I stuck with Carlos like glue. Lester and Kade took the solicitors outer office where there were some filing cabinets, Carlos and I went into Dickies private office. With a penlight in hand Carlos started on the files, me I knew that scumbag too well and went straight to a picture on the wall, a really ugly picture of Dickie shaking the hand of some big wig, you could actually see my hand at the edge of the picture because it was me that got him into a conversation with said big wig, then he had the nerve to cut me out of the photo and enlarge it with just himself. The picture was on hinges down the left side, like a door, so I opened the door and set to work on the dial of a safe. I noticed Carlos had stopped what he was doing and was just watching me. I tuned the dial according to Dickies social security number. After turning left then right a few times there was a clunk and I pulled the handle to open the door. Oh my, I could have a field day in here with all this stuff. Carlos by this time had moved closer, he shone his torch onto the pile of stuff I had dumped on the desk. I started a pile of files I wanted to take; each had a name that fit in with my investigation. Stephanie Plum, Ellen Plum, Edna Mazur, Beatrice Lang, Ian Langley, Ben Grossman, Ricardo Carlos Manoso and, Gerald Hickman and Elspeth Langman. Carlos looked through some I didn't know and threw those in the pile as well. Too many to start copying, I looked at Carlos.

"Too many to copy, what you want to do?"

"Take them"

He touched a mic at his throat.

"Kade take Steph out, send Lester in"

He then transferred the paper from the named files putting it all into one, and then replaced the empty files in the safe. He shrugged and winked at me before Kade had me turned around with the loose papers in my hand, and walked me out of the building. Back in the safety of his office Kade handed me a coffee and I started to separate the papers according to the file they'd been in. Once done I photocopied each sheet of paper then started to pin them onto a large board, with a pink highlighter in hand I started to read. After two hours I had read through each paper, I hadn't started to pull the threads together, I just needed to sit down, nah maybe lay down, and yeah that was better.

Chapter 26

By 2am we had left the building that Dickie Orr had his office in, the place was clean and the camera had been footage doctored, leaving no trace of a break in, I was still laughing inside at how Steph had totally stumped everyone when she simply walked in and found the safe, then proceeded to open it. I told Kade where Steph was concerned try to plan for the unexpected because nothing ever went to plan when she was involved. I suppose to some extent it showed how arrogant we had all been by not including her in the planning. Never mind, we were in and out in a third of the time we'd been planning on.

At 5am I was woken by my phone, I'm sure I hadn't set the alarm; I was willing to forgo the gym today in lieu of our late night. The phone went again and this time I answered.

"Yo"

"Sorry but I've lost Steph"

That got me up in a hurry.

"Kade, how do you mean you lost her, how can you loose her?"

"If I knew she wouldn't be lost"

"Where was she when you last saw her"

"In my office, last night"

"Then that's where she'll be, go check and get back to me"

I decided since I was up I might as well go to the gym, on the way down Kade got back to me.

"Well?"

"Like you thought, fast asleep under the table, the lights are on motion detectors to conserve energy, so when she went to sleep the lights went out. I've left her there to sleep"

"OK ' I'll be over, there were some names on files that I wasn't expecting so I need to take a look, plus I think she needs to know about Morelli"

I hung up and continued to the gym, Re hashing that particular conversation I needed to have with Steph. Morelli was a total screwball when we got to him yesterday. Yeah, he knew he'd shot Steph, didn't know why except an instinct to obey orders. I almost felt sorry for him but I'd handed over all the evidence we had from his house and his recorded confession over to the Chief of Police, he could decide what to do. After working out I called to see Hector, he'd had a message from Steph for some information so I took it with me. No joy on the phone it was totally fried, that was another one down to Morelli, he'd told the FBI all about the trackers, wires and panic buttons Steph often carried, and they'd obviously come up with a way of disabling them, and that was worrying because that type of tech equipment was not easy to get your hands on. Back at the satellite office I found Steph in the kitchen with Tobi eating doughnuts? Well if that kept her happy today, who was I to spoil it?

"Babe, you get enough sleep?"

"I think so, I need to get back to work"

"I'll join you"

I followed her into the office and as the door closed literally made a grab for her, she giggled! What kind of response was that?

"Sorry I keep having dreams about telephone sex with you, and now you're here, if you come near me I'm gonna jump you"

I laughed and took her in my arms.

"Then do it"

"No, not in some one else's office"

Finishing the kiss I turned her toward the boards.

"All right, I give in, lets get a look at those files"

Steph had already copied them and put the copies onto the boards, there was pink all over the place showing that she'd already spent a lot of time reading.

"So what do we have Babe?"

"The oldest file belongs to Grandma, it must have been one of the older partners who set it up, but it was someone else who spoke with the solicitor. Basically it explains that Grandma or the youngest named relative has the rights to the safety deposit box at the bank. The solicitor updated as children reached 21 and I'm added on last, as I'm the youngest. I think the file got lost when the solicitor died, then when Beatrice Lang got in touch with the firm Dickie found it. It seems as if she'd tried every firm in the area looking for something that tied in to Grandma. He probably told her what the file said when he found it and told my mother at the same time, maybe wanting some payoff from my mother, especially if he now thought the box contained valuables. When Beatrice put the plan together with Langley and Hickman, Dickie tried to find out who they were, to be honest the files have very little in them, but they do give us a timeline. My mother must have got the contact details from Dickie and I think she tried to hatch a plan to get me hooked, hoping I'd go running to her and then she'd take possession of the box"

"I brought you the information you asked Hector for, and guess who paid for your Great Grandmothers ticket?"

"Thomas Grossman"

"Yes, I don't know how you do it'

"There's probably some big word, but I think it through and follow my spidey sense"

"So what next?"

"Find Elspeth Langman and have a conversation with her"

"Tall order Babe"

"Any other suggestions"

"No, but"

"Spit it out, you're stalling"

"Just remember I was putting you first"

"So?"

"Kade and I had a conversation with Morelli yesterday. We found him in your old apartment. He's totally lost it Babe; the ballistics came back to his gun. So we handed all the evidence, everything over to the Chief for him to deal with"

"What other evidence?"

"The bullet, ballistics, the basement and his confession. Babe he was the one who told the FBI about you wearing trackers, mikes and a panic button. They came prepared with an EMP or microwave devise to fry them, that's why your phone won't work, and why we lost all the electronic units you had on you"

"I'm all right with that decision Carlos, and I suppose you were right that I didn't see him myself, he's supposed to be a good cop and he let his emotions get the better of him, he also nearly killed me"

"I'm glad you see it that way"

"There were some files you brought out?"

"Good people I know, like me, who wouldn't want anyone to have a file on them, they're good guys Babe"

"No problem as long they aren't involved with this"

"So we're left with Grossman senior and Elspeth Langman?"

"Yes, can you find where Elspeth has gone, and I'll dig into Grossman?"

"I'll do that, I can also call in a favor to have agent Langley dealt with"

"Let me think about that. You know we always assumed that when Erzsébet Lange lived here as a child she lived with a woman, maybe it was Thomas Grossman, but I'm not sure why they disappeared"

"Babe we're talking history here, we may never know all the answers"

The most important thing for me was to clear my Babe's name and be rid of any threats to her, for her to be able to live her life freely. At Rangeman I asked Hector to track Elspeth Langman and find her whereabouts then had to get down to the mundane tasks of the business. Steph was going to be following her Grandmothers history.


	14. Chapter 27 & 28

Chapter 27

I knew I was beginning to feel hemmed in, antsy with being inside so much. I was short-tempered with people and constantly apologizing. Working in the gym yesterday with Tobi had helped and although he said I was doing well I felt frustrated, I found it really hard using my legs and feet to kick. I'd spoken with Mr. Grossman yesterday after Carlos left, asking him to find anything he had from his father, so when I visited this morning I could explain to him what I'd found out. Tobi was with me today and he was in bodyguard mode, I always found it amazing how their demeanor changed, Lester was the same. I missed Lester and the banter we could have together but Tobi was becoming closer to me and I felt a friendship building. Mr. Grossman opened his door as he saw us approach; I'd gone as Stephanie with my hair and body so no one would find out about my disguise.

"Morning Ben, this is Tobi, he's here to make sure I'm safe"

"Oh, all right. Coffee?"

"No thanks, we really need to get down to looking at what you've found of your fathers"

"No problem, there's only one box that I found, it was in the attic hidden amongst a load of junk, I started to look through it. Was there something in particular you were looking for?"

"Well, anything from when he was in Hungary or about people he may have known. I think as well as bringing Erzsébet Lange here to America he helped my Grandmother and her mother"

"There are some things there, what's your Grandmothers name?"

"Edna Mazur, but that's her married name, she insisted that I was called after her so I think her mothers surname would sound like Stephanie"

"Do you think Edina Stefanie could be it, because I have an envelope with that name on it"

Ben seemed pretty excited about this, so as I nodded my head he disappeared and came back with a very faded envelope. Written in a script handwriting in blue faded ink was that name. Underneath, added possibly later were the words "daughters and granddaughters" I looked at it debating whether or not to open it, or should Grandma be the one to open it? Tobi could see the dilemma I was in.

"Steph can I suggest you get Carlos to call your Grandma and ask if she wants to open it with you?"

"I agree Stephanie, it's obviously personal to her and now to you, you need to be comfortable and private to open that. I don't mind, you can tell me about it later if you want"

I was happy that both men seemed so supportive and agreed with them both.

"Thank you Ben, we'll go now and I will get back to you, I promise"

"Good luck Stephanie"

As Tobi drove I called Carlos and he agreed to get in touch with Grandma to see how she wanted to proceed, I was surprised when he returned my call ten minutes later.

"Babe I was lucky, I called the hairdressers, Cut n Curl first, on the off chance she was there, she wants you to read it first, then maybe when she's thought about it, she said you could talk to her about it. She doesn't feel that she could cope with the memories. Do you want to wait till this evening then I can be with you?"

"Carlos can we do it on seven, I always feel calmer there?"

"Sure Babe, ask Tobi to bring you over and I'll scramble the cameras, but go straight to seven on the elevator. Most of the men don't know where you are. Plan to arrive for 7pm then we can have dinner together"

"Thank you"

Tobi and I arrived just before 7pm and took the elevator up, inside the apartment were Tank, Lester, Hector and Ram. I'd taken out my brown contact lenses on the way up. It was like old times being surrounded by black and passed from one man to the next for hugs.

"Beautiful I like the new look, kinda sexy, oomph"

Yeah you guessed, Tank smacked him round the head. I removed the wig and combed my freed hair with my fingers.

"Little Girl I sure have missed you"

"Estefania, es bueno tenerte en casa"

"Good to see you Steph"

Tobi joined us for a meal that was absolutely scrumptious; did I say Ella was the Goddess of the kitchen? She had prepared avocado panzanella, spicy prawn linguine and Herby lamb fillet with caponata, all of them firing up the taste buds in my mouth. Yes there were a few quiet moments when my focus was purely on tasting, and yes the guys seemed to shift uncomfortably, well except for Hector who was quietly laughing. While Carlos and Tobi enjoyed strong black coffee the rest of us savored the tiramisu. Did I say I love Ella? When we had finished and cleared the table the men were all aware of their need to leave, goodbyes were said which left me with Carlos and the elephant in the room, the letter. "Babe let's get comfortable on the couch and you can read that letter" With Carlos lent against the couch arm, legs across the seats, I sat with him behind my back, between his legs, his arms resting around my waist. I was nervous and apprehensive as I carefully opened the envelope, the flap came apart easily, the glue aged with time. Inside were several pieces of high quality paper covered in script handwriting in blue ink. I held the sheets in front of me and began to slowly read. "I am writing this letter for you Edina or for the daughters or Granddaughters that I now know you to have. As a very young child you showed strength, resilience and a love for life that will live on through these woman. I often visualize the memory of your mother's beautiful blue eyes as she watched over you and knew I was destined in some way to keep you both safe. But to my story, as I am sure you will have been too young to remember, and your mother was mentally frayed by the events she had endured and witnessed.

Your father and I, Mikeás, grew up together and were the best of friends, more like brothers. We attended the same schools and embarked upon our careers. Your father was the one of us who was enterprising whilst I was more practical minded. We grew and nurtured a business that was very successful, by making and selling beautiful pieces of jewelry and works of art. A third friend, Károly Riamann supported this enterprise, he was a master at security and ensured the safety of our goods, properties and families.

In 1939 we saw the start to World War 2, the politics were controversial and we saw Hungary deeply involved with Germany, leaders were convinced that Germany would win the war and sought to maintain Hungary's independence by appeasing Hitler, he tricked them to join his invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, and in December 1941 Hungary formally entered the war against Britain and the United States. The government deported the first 40,000 Jews from Hungary, and six months later Hungarian troops, in reprisal for resistance activities, murdered 3,000 Serbian and Jewish hostages. While these events were taking place Germany increased its financial and economic presence in Hungary, we were continuing to do well, but lives were becoming more stressful. You see my wife, Rebeka, and I were Jewish, living side by side amongst Catholics, we were seen as rich, we had always lived together in harmony, so we hid our faith and prayed for safety. In the end we moved to live with you and your parents in order to avoid being captured. The country became a battlefield. Jews were rounded up, and sent to Auschwitz, or used as slave laborers. Hungary was ransacked first by the retreating Germans, who demolished the rail, road, and communications systems, then by the advancing Soviet Red Army, which found the country in a state of political chaos. As a police force the Gendarmerie were charged with destroying any opponents of a new Hungarian regime and were responsible for carrying out the regime's anti-Jewish policies. The Gendarmerie men were so cruel in their treatment of Hungary's Jews that even the Nazis were shocked. It was at their hands that my dearly beloved wife was murdered, they beat me severely but with her, their actions are indescribable. Your father, Mikeás, my friend was targeted for being friends with us and not long after he was also dead. I took you and your mother, finding safety by moving us around, and then sold some pieces of jewelry your father had made and ensured your safe passage to America. I apologize for a slight change in your name from Edina to Edna, but at the time I thought it would give you some anonymity. I came across Károly, he was now working for the Gendarmie, and he was bitter and resentful. He had also lost his wife to disease and was resentful of the small child he was now left with. I had some money left and through contacts acquired passage for his daughter Erzsébet, and myself into America. She lived with me, and her name meaning Elizabeth, was changed to Beatrice or Beatty, as she preferred to be called. We ended up living close to you, by chance, but by then Erzsébet was a bitter child she had memories of power and grandeur from Hungary, her father had not turned up, we had no money and she attached herself to you, thinking you were her way to acquire it. In the end I had to move away before she tainted you, and, as she got older my faith annoyed her and she was less compassionate toward others. Eventually she went with a family from Miami who could give her what she wanted. I never heard from her again. Maybe I failed her. But you dear Edina, I watched you from afar, a daughter, but then a granddaughter the image of your mother, the image of your soul.

Your father had crafted deep blue diamonds into jewelry for your mother, the same color as the blue of her eyes, of your granddaughter. I smuggled them out of Hungary and into America keeping them for you, but over time I decided that your Granddaughter, the image of your mother, should be the keeper. I left information with a solicitor at first but didn't update it. Forgive me Edna for taking that choice away from you. At first I kept them at a bank, but was afraid they would be found by the wrong people or lost to time, so before I died 22 years ago I moved them, before I wrote this letter. I left a copy of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" often seen for the religious and racial discrimination portrayed should Erzsébet ever think to look for any thing of mine, I am sure she had knowledge of me visiting the bank.

International Private Vaults Incorporated now holds the jewels. The box can only be opened by the one true blue eyed descendent, your Granddaughter.

There must be justice even though the heavens fall

Free your heart from hatred

Free your mind from worries

Live simply

Give more

Expect less

Isten áldjon

I simply put the papers on my knee and closed my eyes; I didn't really know how to feel. In some ways I felt a fulfillment that I now knew the history of my closest Hungarian ancestors, there was honesty and simplicity in what had been written by Thomas, almost a resignation of what had happened and how he had tried to do right for his friends, even though one friend had turned against him.

"Babe?"

I think I jumped at his voice I'd become so engrossed with my thinking.

"Sorry, just thinking about what he wrote and how he wrote it"

"How do feel about the letter?"

"I think I feel a sense of attachment, if that's the right word, to my Grandmas family. But I feel for Thomas and how he tried to make things right"

"What about the gems?"

"I'm curious to see them, especially if my great grandfather made them, but they're not as important as the story"

"Proud of you Babe, that quote at the end describes you perfectly, because that's how you live life"

He turned my head and brought my face to his, a kiss that was tender and loving and honest.

"If I'm fit enough to do all that work in the gym then mister I'm taking you on in the bedroom"

He laughed and in one fluid move had lifted me in his arms and walked into the bedroom, kicking the door closed behind him. As he laid me on the bed and followed me down he looked into my eyes.

"I love you more each day Babe"

"I love you too, make love to me"

I pressed my lips to his, softly, tongues gliding, tasting, the kiss slowly grew more intimate and erotic. His mouth slid down my neck, making me breathe out a sigh. He lifted me to sit up and pulled my top over my head, removing his at the same time. Then laying back down he teased at the fabric of my bra, pulling the cups below my breasts. His mouth closed over my breast, licking and sucking, before biting lightly then blowing across my hard nipple. I lifted my hips to invite him to pull down my trousers and briefs as I undid the button and zip of his cargos, freeing his hard erect shaft.

I felt him stroking my wet slit and with his thumb at my clit, his fingers slipping into me, I stroked my hand around his shaft, scraping my nails from the base to its head and across to spread his precum. His movement was hypnotic as with each stroke he incited sensations and feelings so strong they radiated through out my whole body He brought

me to the very edge and with a curl of his fingers and with a squeeze to my swollen clit I fell over the edge. Removing his wet fingers from me, he stroked them over his long, thick shaft and, spreading my thighs, he slowly sank into me.

"I love you,"

He moved so gently inside me, I rocked against him, my legs wrapped around his and my hands clasping at his thighs, taking me higher with each thrust. A lift of my hips deepened his reach, and with his groin rubbing against my clit, release came for both of us in waves, my muscles worked in sequence to draw him in and sweep his seed inside of me. I was filled with so much emotion I didn't scream out, it was with a moan and a sigh of utter completion for our love for each other. The release was with waves of pleasure, surging over and over again. I clutched him to me so that I wouldn't drown in the sheer emotion I felt.

"Look at me, Stephanie"

My eyes locked onto his, I could feel his heart beating against mine, my soul entwined with his.

"I love you so much Carlos'

"Yo amo por siempre Babe"

He turned over onto his back pulling me with him, I settled over his chest with him still inside me, I felt myself relax and drifted to sleep.

Chapter 28

I awoke feeling euphoric with Steph asleep across me, both of us had slept soundly without moving. I slowly moved her onto her side and slipped out from beneath her, her moan reflected my feeling of an immediate loss. I showered and dressed and quietly moved into the kitchen. I sat down and read the letter for myself that Steph had read to me the night before. I was being logical now as I dissected from it information we would need. Making relevant notes on my phone I replaced the letter into the envelope and put it back onto the coffee table, then in the kitchen I started the coffee and rang down to Ella for breakfast. I could hear Steph stirring so went to her, bending over her and kissing any part of her skin I could find. She was squirming and laughing so much she fell off the bed, I panicked, running round to find her flat on her back still giggling, as I helped her up she quieted and nuzzled into my chest.

"Last night was more intense than I've ever known before"

"For me too Babe"

"I'm going to shower and dress then decide what we do next"

"Breakfast will be here when you've finished"

Steph was unusually quiet during breakfast obviously thinking.

"I smell smoke Babe"

"Yeah well we have some loose ends to tie up and I want my life back"

"How?"

"I want Langley locked up for his part, surely we have enough evidence on him?"

"You sure?"

"Yes, I don't want anyone, especially you, to be tainted by this"

"All right I'll speak with someone I know high up in the ranks"

"Good, so that should get the police and suits off my back right?"

"Yes, what are you cooking up?"

"I want to go and get the gems from the vault, using my disguise, then can you have copies, you know fakes, made of them?"

"Yes. Babe, you're making me worried, what are you thinking?"

"Well I'm going to return, I mean Stephanie Plum is, and I'm going to show my mother the fake gems"

"To bait a trap, see who she talks to?"

"Yes"

"All right"

"All right? That's all you're going to say?"

"For now"

"Right then I'll go to the vaults tomorrow as soon as they're open, with you and as many men as you like but, keep it tight, no leaks this time"

"Only men we both trust, Babe"

In some ways I liked how her mind was working, Hector had found Elspeth Langman in her Washington home, so she was far enough away for the moment. We tidied away from breakfast and I called Lester to go with Steph back to the satellite office and sent a message to the top team members, in other words my core team plus Ram and Hector and Kade and his men, and Angel. Bobby was back at this office today having extended his stay in Miami. By the time I reached my office I was mentally prepared to go after Agent Ian Langley. I used my secure line and put in a call to General Honister, he had been my commanding officer for a long time and we had moved beyond just being soldiers, he was approachable and I hoped that if he couldn't help he knew someone who could.

"General, Carlos Manoso here"

"Carlos, must admit I prefer Ranger"

"Whichever you prefer, I answer to both"

"You phoning to re sign, changed your mind?"

"No General, all the reasons I told are all valid, if not more so"  
"Lucky girl, so what do you want?"

"We're having a very big problem with a rogue FBI agent"

"Ah shit Ranger, give me the story"

So I told him the whole story starting with Stephs Great Grandparents in Hungary, Stephs journey to Miami and the crash of the jet plus the different names of Elspeth Langman and her Grandson, Ian Langley, finishing with the incident at the bank, her arrest and serious injury. I glossed over how we got her back safely, leaving out the names of Kade and his men and my team. Then tried to explain what Steph wanted to happen.

"That's one hell of a story Ranger and just so you know I did a bit of research myself on that woman of yours, hell no wonder you needed to retire, you've got your hands full with her. How does she end up in the middle of so much shit?"

"A gift, I'll have to introduce you to her, then you'll understand"

"I'll look forward to that. Well then back to this little problem you both seem to have. First send me all the research and evidence, how the hell did you put all of this together?"

"Steph did"

"She must be one hell of a researcher"

"Oh she is, with an unnatural instinct and senses"

"All right then I'm going to call the Director and have him arrest Langley, quietly, for conspiring with a terrorist act, see how he likes it. Then I want in when you take down that Langman woman, you hear me?"

"Will do sir"

With that sorted I prepared for our planning meeting for the visit to the vault in New York City.


	15. Chapter 29 & 30

Chapter 29

I actually woke up feeling positive and raring to go, so much so I called Tobi for a quick session in the gym, so sue me it was 5am. After showering with Bulgari, come on I needed the extra boost and I'm sure Carlos wouldn't miss the bottle I borrowed yesterday, I scrubbed, moisturized and applied varnish to my toe and finger nails, then applied gel to spike the hair of my wig. I was wearing a tan Dior suit, the fitted skirt to my knees, with a slit up the back, black cashmere top and black FMPs. I had my bigger boobs and hips on but wasn't wearing contacts; instead I put on dark sunglasses. With id in a large black leather bag and a shit load of electronics courtesy of Hector I sashayed out of the apartment and down to Kade's office. Carlos was waiting for me and gave me an appreciative smile. I walked up to him and gave him a passionate kiss then as he was getting a little too enamored I pulled away.

"Someone is in a playful mood, Babe"

"I'm feeling good about this morning, so let's get this show on the road"

Some of the guys had already left for the city and Angel was being seen out and about in Trenton as a decoy, just in case anyone suspected anything. I rode with Carlos who was driving a black Mercedes S class coupe.

"I still prefer the Porsche, more raw power"

"I agree, it sounds and feels better"

That was about it for conversation. We had several cars in front and behind running interference, I didn't always see them but there was constant chat over the speaker as to where they were and what they were going to be doing. Carlos was in bodyguard mode, I could tell from the seriousness of his facial expression and the tight lines that had appeared around his eyes.

"Shit Carlos you're making me nervous"

"Babe?"

"Don't you Babe me"

He smiled and moved his hand onto the top of my thigh and began to move his thumb in circles. Shit did that help? He was turning me on; I was getting goose bumps up and down my legs. As the saying goes whatever keeps him happy. It took us an hour to reach the building housing the vaults, I saw Lester pull his car out of a parking spot so we could park and waited for Carlos to open my door. I knew he and all the guys were wearing mikes and ear buds so they could communicate between each other. I'd called the manager yesterday and forewarned him of my visit and that I would also have a security detail so he didn't look twice as four men dressed in black suits escorted me through the lobby. Did I tell you how hot these guys looked in their suits?

"Thanks Babe"

"Out loud?"

There was a yes from Kade who was stood on the other side of me. The manager approached me and shook my hand introducing himself, to be honest I couldn't remember his name, I was beginning to get a little worried and memories of my last bank visit were coming back to me. Carlos took my hand in his giving it a squeeze; he must have realized how I was feeling.

"Ma'am we only allow one person to accompany you, your guards however can take positions at the doors until you come out, would you please follow me"

Interesting no use of my name. He took us to an entrance and asked for me to place my hand, with fingers spread into a gel like substance, I removed my glasses to look at the machine then turned as I heard a beeping sound. The whole room had its walls covered with the outline of oblongs, likes bricks in a wall, except this was a metal wall. He then led me to stand in front of the beeping box and asked me to repeat the procedure to the scanner just above the outline of a box. As he stood to move away a box slid out, and the lid swung upward to reveal another box inside with handles. Carlos lifted the box out and placed it on the table. I heard him say.

"No cameras that I can see, box removed, opening now"

Inside the box was a large black velvet box, sheesh talk about a box within a box within a box. It was like those Chinese dolls. I picked up the velvet box and looked at Carlos, we'd never talked about whether to open it here.

"Take the box and put it into the leather bag you're carrying, we'll look inside when we know we're secure. Make sure there's nothing else, OK?"

"OK"

We left everything as it was on the table and left the room, as we exited my bodyguards fell into place and I was surrounded as we moved to the outside door, we stopped for a second and I noticed Kade talking and listening, obviously with the guys outside, then we were on the move, this time all of us got into a black SUV with Lester driving. I was in between Carlos and Kade on the seat in the back. As soon as the doors all closed we shot away from the curb. I relaxed glad that everything had gone so smoothly, but I had a question nagging at me.

"Carlos how did they have my fingerprints?"

"Thomas could have come up to you as a child, you'd probably never remember, someone at the hospital, a stranger in the street or in a shop. We'll never know Babe"

I began to relax and put my head on Carlos's shoulder and yes even I could fall asleep after that little bit of adrenaline rush. I only woke up when I felt myself being lifted.

"I can walk"

"Maybe, but I like to carry you"

"Okay"

I snuggled up into his chest but I was waking up now, we were back, all safe and sound.

"Carlos was there any sign of trouble?"

"No, and there won't be. Langley was arrested this morning and since he's in a military prison he won't be getting out or allowed visitors or phone calls"

"Really, how?"

"You owe a general a visit"

"Honister?"

Carlos nodded to Kade and he laughed and replied to Carlos.

"He's fucked"

What the hell did that mean? I was put down on the couch and given the velvet box, I didn't know so many men could fit in this room and since they'd all helped and supported me I didn't mind them being there. I slowly lifted the lid open and removed a thin piece of black cloth. I just sat and stared at the contents, one of the guys whistled, another said "holy shit" and I'm sure there were other comments made. I was bug eyed, literally shocked as I stared at the contents. Inside were seven pieces of jewelry. A ring, necklace, choker, bracelet, two earrings and a hair comb. They were stunning and beautiful, each one had a series of large, and I mean humungous, blue diamonds mounted on them, surrounding by smaller black and white diamonds all set in, I think, white gold. I was speechless. Carlos interrupted the silence.

"Babe, shall I take a photograph so we can get the fakes made?"

I just nodded and placed the box on the table.

"Should we have fakes made of all of them?"

I asked looking around, Kade stepped forward.

"Maybe not the hair comb or choker, what do you think?"

I nodded agreeing.

"Where are we going to keep them?"

"In my safe here on seven, it has retinal scan and code entry, plus any thief would have to get through the building"

"Right, but should we tell anyone, you know that they're being kept somewhere safe?"

"Beautiful if you say just that and stick to that then you'll be fine"

"Well I'm gonna have to prepare for my grand entrance tomorrow, so I'll need to get packed and sort my apartment out. And where is my car?"

No one said a word, they nodded and said goodbye and all of a sudden there was just me and Carlos left.

"Shit babe, I didn't think you'd go back to your apartment"

"Well that's where I lived before all this happened, so that's where I'll have to be or someone's gonna get awfully suspicious"

"I know you're right, I just don't like it on so many levels"

"Yeah well, neither do I"

I just couldn't see a way around it.

"How long before the we have the fakes?"

"He'll work all night, so tomorrow lunch time"

"So if we set things up in the morning and I go visit my parents for dinner tomorrow maybe I'll only have one night there?"

"I'll be staying with you, you know"

"Good"

That afternoon we planned using seven as our base, Carlos still had everything in his office there out of sight. The problem was there were so many things that could happen, with the potential to go wrong. Carlos had sent someone over to my apartment to make sure it was clean and tidy. I almost died of embarrassment when he said that until he added that Morelli had been found there. There were new locks on the doors and windows, and Hector had put in panic pulls in each room. He'd even put a bolt onto the bathroom door saying if need be, I could lock myself in there, with cameras placed above my door, the elevator and stair door, Rangeman would monitor to make sure there were no unwelcome guests. I had a new phone with all my contacts on and trackers sewn into my clothes, shoes and of course my car. I agreed to be shadowed but put my foot down at someone being permanently by my side, arguing that it would deter anyone thinking I was out and about on my own. The upside was that I wouldn't have to wear the blond wig or contact lenses, so I'd be recognized as me When I returned to the satellite office Tobi took me through my paces in the gym, I was hot and sweaty but could feel the improvements I'd made. Tobi was a very good trainer. After eating dinner by myself I packed up my things, made sure the apartment was tidy and went to bed.

Chapter 30

I woke to the phone ringing on my bedside table, my new phone, and answered it with a smile.

"Good morning Babe"

"Morning to you too, what time is it anyway?"

"8 in the morning, did I wake you?"

"Yeah but I had a long sleep so I need to get up. What you doing today?"

"I've got a couple of clients who want their systems upgraded so I'll pay them a visit, the fake jewelry should be ready so I'll bring them over at lunchtime, what about you?"

"I'll head over to my apartment mid morning and thought I'd maybe do some phone calls before I go over to my parents"

"Do you want me to meet you at the apartment then with the jewelry?"

"Yeah, probably best, who's my shadow today?"

"Ram's on first shift then Santos until you're safely tucked up"

"I'll be good and not lose them, Carlos, be careful today I just have a funny feeling, make sure you have someone with you, please?"

"Sure Babe, love you"

"You too"

I felt confident about today, almost in control, and didn't feel anything would happen, but my spidey senses weren't totally dormant, maybe nerves?

Dressed and packed I said my goodbyes to the guys, I felt almost teary like I wouldn't see them again even though Kade swore they'd be around for a while.

"Angel, you be careful out there, OK?"

"Don't worry about me, I'm with Tobi today and we'll be around and about, so you just take care of you"

I found my car in the garage, I remembered it had a makeover so was confident in driving it, driving over to my apartment block I felt quite nostalgic. Dillon was by the stairs when I got in.

"Steph you're back, how are you?"

"I'm good Dillon"

As I unloaded my bags from the car Dillon helped me with my things up and into my apartment.

"Thanks Dillon, catch you later"

I didn't want to sound as if I was getting rid of him, but I really needed to phone people. Before I had another thought I heard the locks tumble on the door and I felt Carlos about to come in. I stood up and went to meet him.

"Babe I thought I was quiet enough for you not to hear me?"

"I knew it was you"

He looked at me moving his eyes from the tip of my shoes to the top of my head. He made me feel wanted, even dressed as I was in jeans and T-shirt.

I walked into his arms as he kicked the door closed behind him. God how I missed him, he was wearing a black designer suit, black shirt and a dark grey tie. His hair was tied back in a leather band, and he looked delectable.

"I've missed you already Babe, I hate the thought of you here by yourself"

"Well hopefully everything will be sorted soon"  
"Babe when this is all finished will you move in with me, into seven?"

Wow did I want to do that? Could I give up my apartment? When Morelli had suggested it I'd nearly had a panic attack. Carlos was looking at me with a real worried look, could I? Should I? What if he got tired of me?

"Babe I'll never get tired of you, and if you want we could keep this apartment on, but I never want you away from me"

"Then yes I'll move in, but we need to discuss some things first, like my job and men shadowing me"

"Done, nothing happens without a conversation first"

With that said he backed me against the wall and with a knee pushed between my legs and his body pressing against me he took my head in his hands and placed his lips over mine. I opened my mouth to him, changing the angle our lips met, enabling our tongues to explore and entice. As we came up for breath he placed his hands on the wall beside my head.

"Te amo"

"Querida, but now I have to go"

"You just got here!"

"I brought the fake gems, here let me show you them"

Carlos went over to the dining table and took out a long roll of velvet from his jacket pocket, and unrolled it onto the table. I looked from the gems to him and back again.

"These are fake?"

"Yes, they're good aren't they?"

"I wouldn't know the difference"

"You would, the real diamonds have a brilliance to them, like your eyes. Which pieces will you wear?"

"Uhm, I think the necklace and the earrings"

"All right, each piece has a tracker in it so if someone steals any of them we can follow it, where are you going to hide the other pieces?"

I moved into the lounge and lifted the small coffee table, sliding the rug away I prized up a loose floorboard revealing a space under the floor, then I slid a metal box out and unlatched the lid. I hadn't felt this was a good place to hide that original box, but now with all the safety in place in place it felt right. The lid still covered the contents already inside.

"Babe, what else is in the box?"

"Nothing"

"Liar"

He was smiling at me as he took the box out of my hand and looked inside. He looked at me and kissed me on the forehead, I could feel my cheeks burning. Why did he have to look? Why was I feeling so embarrassed? Inside the box were mementos that I'd kept hidden, form other people and probably from myself. He took each one out looking at me. The menu from the diner where we first met, a photo of us together taken by Lula outside the bonds office, a leather tie he'd left here, a watch, now broken, that was a panic button. He looked to me.

"Don't hide them from me, Babe. I have something very similar in my safe at home"

Tears threatened to spill, had I misinterpreted his affection for friendship or had he really been fighting for us all this time? I took the mementos and put them on the shelf by the TV and placed the velvet roll inside, returning the box to my secret hiding space.

Carlos helped me to my feet and with a last affectionate embrace walked toward the door.

"I'll see you this evening, good luck"

Then he was gone. I went back to the table and put the jewelry on, and then with the phone in my hand got back to what I was doing, making phone calls.

"Plum residence"

"Hi mom"

"Stephanie Plum where have you been?"

No how are you, are you feeling better?

"I just got back home"

"Well you need to come for dinner tonight, you've got a lot of explaining to do. All I've had are phone calls and neighbors asking me questions about you, why me?"

"See you for dinner mom, bye"

I cut the call and looked at the phone, how was it that everything revolved around her? I mean, surely a mother should be worried about their daughter? Where did I go wrong? What had I done for her to treat me like that? With a sigh I pushed to connect to my next call.

"Hi Lou"

"Steph, is it you? Are you all right, are you hurt?"

"I'm fine now Lou"

"Hell Steph I was so worried about you, I couldn't believe the stories going round, you gonna fill me in?"

This was my best friend, asking after me and thinking of me.

"Lou it's one hell of a story so we'll have to make a long session of it, I wanted to phone you and let you know I'm back and I'm fine"

"I hear ye' Steph, you need me just call, and look after yourself"  
"Bye Lou"

That conversation made me feel so much better. I couldn't face going into the bonds office so again I made a call.

"Plum bail bonds, how may I help?"

"Hey Connie it's me, Steph"

"You're really here? You're really OK?"

"I am now Connie, how're things with you?"

"Better now I know you're home, I hear that swine shot you"

"He did, and I ended up in hospital having surgery, so it wasn't good, but I'm healing now"

"Yeah well I'm glad they did him for it, he was being real funny after you disappeared, more interested in himself and how you'd left him"

"All's well now Connie, but I need a bit of time to sort myself out, you know?"

"Understood, Rangeman's been picking up most of your skips so Vinnie isn't upset, have you spoken to Lula?"  
"Not yet, she there?"  
"No, she's been real cut up with what happened to you, give her a call will you"

"Will do, catch you soon, bye"

"Bye"

That went well but I needed a coffee before I finished up with my last two calls.

"White girl is that really you?"

"Hi Lula, yes it's me"

"Girl you just about give me a heart attack, I ain't eaten properly in weeks, you back and

for good now? 'Cos I need to see ya"

"I'm back, but I've got to visit with my parents, Lula you gonna be all right now?"

"Sure am, on my way to buy doughnuts then I'm gonna get me a pedi and mani and get my hair done, I've been so down without knowing if you be alive or dead girl"

"You go sort yourself out and I'll catch up with you when I'm sorted out, OK?"

"That's my girl, ta-ra for now"

Poor Lula, she really had been feeling bad, but hopefully now she would bounce back.

Last phone call.

"Hi Eddie, Steph here"

"Steph I am so glad to hear from you. He came through for you then?"

"If you mean Ranger, then yes"

"No one else I know would Steph"

"Eddie I called to say thank you, for believing in me"

"Steph I know you, and I know you wouldn't do anything to hurt someone or for personal gain. The way Morelli acted was unforgivable"

"Err Eddie is he around and about?"

"Don't worry, with the way he behaved he's been ordered by the courts to take a psychiatric evaluation, then when it's done he'll go to court"

"That's good, I don't think I could face meeting him, Eddie did they find out who set his house on fire?"

"You won't believe this Steph, but word out there is that Terry Gilman was so pissed off at him because he wouldn't continue their liaison that she got one of her dads goons to do it. There's no proof, so it's still an ongoing case, but no ones really wasting time on it"

"Thanks Eddie, for everything"

"No problem Steph, give me a shout if you need anything"

"Bye Eddie, and no I'm not babysitting!"

Well the afternoon was disappearing and all I'd done was talk on the phone, I needed to get ready to face my mother so a shower was needed. I showered, buffed and moisturized, then put on a straight knee length denim skirt with a dark blue blouse that showed off the necklace and earrings, and then applied soft eye makeup and three coats of mascara. I needed the courage tonight.

I noticed Lester in my rear view mirror as I drove and parked out side of my parent's house, I'm sure he made sure I saw him, to give me confidence that he was there. My mother, as always was waiting on the doorstep. Why does she do it? Is it her way of intimidating me? Or showing me her love?

"Stephanie, what are you wearing?"

"Nice to see you too mum"

Oh, she didn't like that reply, so I followed her through the dining room and into the kitchen.

"You need any help mum?"

"No, get your father to sit at the table"

"No Grandma?"

"Coach trip with Mavis, she told me she'd be back later tonight"

The three of us sat at the table eating stuffed cabbage, in silence. I don't know how I ever liked this stuff; it was feeling heavy in my stomach.

"Stephanie stop playing with your food"

"Sorry mum, I've still not got my appetite back"

"Frank tell her, she needs to eat get her energy back"

"For gods sake Ellen leave the girl alone, she's just got back home and from what I've heard she's still recovering from a serious injury"

"Oh Frank, what did she do to make poor Joseph shoot at her?"

"Poor Joseph, he's a moron and good riddance to him"

"You're wrong, he loves her, and he's the one she has to marry"

"For gods sake woman, he nearly killed her"

"She needs to learn her place and accept who she is"

My head was going back and forth between the two, that was the most I'd heard my father say in years, and he was standing up for me. Go dad. He finished his meal and scraping back the chair got up.

"Ellen, can you please not serve that again, I don't know why you think anyone likes it"

I stared after him as he left the room and went back to his TV in the lounge.

"Stephanie don't you have something to tell me?"

"Not that I know of"

"How about where you got that necklace from"

"Oh this, it is beautiful isn't it?"

"Well yes, but not really your style"

"I like it"

"It doesn't belong to you"

"I think it does, don't you"

"Well Beatrice said . . . I mean I heard that a piece like that belonged to someone else"

"Mum, just spit it out. What do you think you know?"

"That there are important documents that you need to get to the right people and you were supposed to be helping, but as usual you made a mess of it"

"So how do you think I should make things right"

"Those documents"

"Mum I don't have any documents, the FBI have them"

"Then get them, before someone gets hurt, you never think about others, you just blunder your way through life and end up in the wrong"

I was close to tears, but held them back, who did she think I would hurt?

"Who do you think I should be helping?"

"Your family of course, I don't know where I went wrong with you"

"But I've done nothing wrong"

"Oh, but you're wearing that jewelry, it should be with the person it belongs to"

"And who might that be?"

"You know very well young lady, so sort it out, before it's too late"

Interesting, we were going around in circles with this conversation so I decided to be the one to stop it.

"Thanks for dinner mum, I'll call soon"

"You're going?"

"Yes, bye mum, bye dad"

"Bye pumpkin, take care"

With that I walked out of the door and over to my car. I drove slowly back to my apartment, Lester right behind me. Once in the car park Lester came up in the elevator with me and checked out my apartment.

"You all right Beautiful?"

"Yes thanks"

"I'll be right outside Beautiful, call if you need me"

I locked the door behind him and wandered through to the bedroom. I couldn't get that conversation with my mother out of my head, why did she seem to hate me so much that she couldn't, or wouldn't want me to be happy? I lay on the bed and decided to think happy thoughts instead, Carlos would be here soon.


	16. Chapter 31 & 32

Chapter 31

I must have dozed off because I woke with a jolt, something was wrong, but I couldn't hear anything. I pulled a gun from the side of my pillow, yes I had it with me and it was loaded, and slowly moved toward the lounge. Empty as was the kitchen, looking at the clock it read 1 am. Where was Carlos? He said he'd be here, I had a horrible feeling in my gut and returned to the bedroom, finding my phone I hit Lesters number.

"Beautiful, you OK?"

"Yes, no"

"What's wrong?"

"Ranger, where is he?"

"He should be here by now, I'll check where he is"

It took ten minutes for Lester to get back to me, and he did it by hammering on my door.

"Lester what is it?"

He led me to the couch and made me sit down, as I tried to stand up two hands rested on my shoulders stopping me. Shit I didn't even notice anyone else come in. I could feel my heart beat increasing and my breathing hitch.

"It's Carlos isn't it?"

My head was suddenly on my knees with hands gently rubbing my back, as I calmed down I sat up looking from one man to the next. Tank, Lester, Hector, Kade, and Tobi.

"No, he's got to be all right"

"Bonita we don't know"

"How can't you know, he has trackers and he was supposed to have someone with him"

"Ram's in the hospital, Angel and Bobby are there now. Beautiful someone got him, we can't find him"

OK now I was panicking. How could that happen? Who could have him?

"What do we know?"

"He went with Ram to look over a security system that needed to be upgraded, then we had an alarm go off, since he and Ram were closest they went to check it out. There was no indication that anything was wrong until a passerby found Ram in an alley injured and called for an EMT. Hell we didn't realize anything until the hospital called, they found Rams id inside his jacket."

"Bonita get the fake gems and this time we'll all use Rangeman as our base"

"Little Girl the men know you're back and our side is totally secure now, we have more resources there and you can help"

Hector came up to me and pulled me to my feet, I moved the coffee table and rug and retrieved the velvet roll from the box. All of the men were just staring. Hector laughed.

"Brillante, Estefania, now go"

With all of the jewelry back in the velvet roll I placed it my bag, picked up my coat and phone then locked up the apartment, as we entered the elevator my phone began playing the batman theme tune. My heart lifted, Carlos was calling, and he was all right.

"Carlos?"

"Oh dear how quaint, is that what you call him?"

"Who is this?"

My face must have fallen because everyone looked at me; I motioned to Hector who already had his phone out, hopefully tracking the call.

"Why it's Beatrice"

"You mean Elspeth, where's Carlos?"

"Oh you are a clever girl, maybe I underestimated you, but not any more"

"What do you want?"

"I want what is mine and I have that spick you seem so keen on"

"You got your documents"

"Did I? Those papers just seem to be a copy of a Shakespeare play"

"You need to be able to read behind the lines Elspeth"

"If you want to see your dear Carlos, then have some answers for me when I call you again"

The phone went dead and Hector shook his head.

"General area, but moving, phone dead now"

As a large group we moved from the building in silence and climbed into the fleet of cars parked at the back of the lot. I was in a daze as we travelled quickly through the streets back to Rangeman. Back at Rangeman the men didn't know whether to hug me or console me. There was a buzz of activity as men moved back and forth from room to computer to room. A large conference room had been designated as the war room and more men were bringing down all the papers that had been in Carlos's office. Smiling, Kade handed me a bright yellow highlighter.

"You can find where she has him, it won't be too far away because she wants what you have"

Tobi handed me a fresh coffee as I began at the beginning, looking for places that she might use.

'Try these addresses first, I don't think they're right, but there could be something there to give us a clue. I gave them the addresses to my parents' house, Grossmans house, and the one on Adeline Street. I also found a house in the name of Ian Langley and an apartment for Gerard Hickman. After two hours all the teams reported a negative. Oh god where could she have taken him?

I had searches running for any property assigned to any name or combination of names but after five hours we had nothing. I was running on coffee and adrenaline, and it was running low.

"The area where those bikers were, do we have an actual location?"

"Beautiful Cal's the man you need to talk to, I only heard it was somewhere near to the docks, I'll go find him for you"

Cal appeared soon after and he talked through with me what he had been doing when the bikers were around.

"I never had any information about a central location, they were just using some of the bars they hung out at, the phone I managed to get hold of has never been called again"

"Give me the addresses of the bars and I'll see what I can find"

That gave me an area, so pulling up a detailed map of the area of docks close to the bars; I started to look at each building and the owners. After five hours I had six computers running searches, I sat on the floor my back against the wall and closed my eyes, it was over twelve hours since Carlos had gone missing. I was aware of someone holding onto me, but the images that were sliding across my eyes were pulling at me and were so much stronger, two children sat on a door step but with the sound of screams and gunfire, men fighting and arguing around fires in the street, women being beaten, their clothes torn and bloodstained, and the eyes of young children hollow and dark from lack of food. Then there was Carlos blood stained his face and chest as a woman, whose face I couldn't see whipped him with a chain. I screamed for her to stop, but only heard her mirthful voice, "such a disappointment" I jolted awake and realized that Tobi was trying so hard to contain me, my tears came hard and fast as I tried to regain my composure.

"Breathe with me Padawan, feel my breath in your ear and my heart with yours"

I closed my eyes and matched my breathing to his, my heart rate slowing and my tears drying.

"You want to talk about it?"

Did I? The women and children who were walking to their death, the men being forced onto the trains, the old and young dying in the streets with no food. And those who were responsible bitter and angry, shouting and hitting with a rage I'd never felt before. The faces of Morelli, Langley and Hickman amongst the onlookers, they were laughing at the scene before them. Carlos a victim because of his color, and his heritage, all because of a hatred I couldn't begin to comprehend. I shook my head, how on earth do you rationalize those scenes of my dream into words.

"Come on you've been at this for hours, take a break"

"No, I can't, I have to find him"

A phone began to ring from the table, mine but I didn't recognize the ringtone, number not given. I swiped to listen for the caller.

"Stephanie are you ready to reconsider?"

"What do you want from me Elspeth?"

"I want what is mine"

"Explain to me what that is, because I'm not sure"

Hector came into the room with a laptop and gestured for me to keep going.

"I need to know the message in the writing and I want the jewels that my father had made for me"

"Will you let Carlos go?"

"When the task is complete"

"All right how do we do this?"

"Good girl, give me one hour to arrange a meeting, I'll call you with instructions"

The phone went dead. As I stared at it, willing it to tell me something, Hector came up to me.

"Estefania you can not meet her"

I shrugged my shoulders and turned back to the searches that were now spewing from the printer.

"Let's see what I can find, then when she phones we can plan something out, did you get a location?"

"No, I'm sorry, it's moving around the same area as before, but we know she's using some sort of program to transfer the signal, bouncing it from satellites, quite a high tech one as well"

I returned to my papers spreading them on the floor then with my new color I began the task of reading and analyzing. There were a lot of buildings in the dock area, so I ignored ones where workers would be in and out, shops and factories still operating. It still left a lot. Would she be stupid be enough to use a known name, but she wouldn't know which names I knew. I doubted she'd use one of her aliases or someone directly involved. Her father, maybe, possibly and my spidey senses were telling me yes. I found the paper that Thomas Grossman had written, Károly Riamann, and scanned again highlighting any name that might fit. After forty minutes I stood up with one sheet in my hand. Everyone in the room stopped working and looked at me.

"Bonita what have you got?"

"A warehouse down by the docks that makes jewelry called Karols Creative Designs"

"You sure?"

"No website exists for them and they don't appear anywhere else"

Kade seemed to take command.

"Tank set up a recon team, then everyone in here in 30"

"Hector, keep working on that signal"

"Jobe, you and Santos get the equipment we'll need"

"Are Bobby or Angel back?"

"No boss, but on their way, Ram's being kept over at the hospital"

"When they get back ask them to get a full med kit together. Vince can you find blue prints for that warehouse?"

There was a frenzy of activity as everyone moved to fulfill their role, voices calling out, and responses from across the room, computers humming. Then as though time had been frozen all movement and sound ceased at the sound of my phone. Kade sat me down on his knee, his arms around my waist, anchoring me, as he removed the phone from my hand, nodding to the men, he pressed the speaker option and squeezed me.

"Hello?"

"Stephanie, I want you to go to the car park, Station Plaza Parking on Raoul Wallenberg Ave. On the lowest level there is a bike, I know you can drive a bike my dear, you'll find instructions and the keys in the back box, you have an hour to get there. Bring the gems with you"

"When . ."

She'd hung up on me. I made to move but was stopped.

"Where you going, Bonita?"

"To get changed"

"All right, be back down here in ten, I'll organize men to follow and have someone at the garage"

I ran up the stairs, thinking movement was preferable to standing still in the elevator and rushing into the bedroom on seven, stripped my clothes and redressed. One last look in the mirror, black cargos and long sleeved T-shirt over my Rangeman under wear, topped off with the black leather jacket and black cat boots. No wig, too much for going under a helmet, but then again wouldn't she recognize me? No, it didn't matter, she already knew what I looked like, and combing my hair I tied it into a loose ponytail on my back and was out the door.

"Little Girl, here is the jewelry, and a panic button, there are trackers that Hector will put on you"

I placed the roll containing the jewelry into the inside pocket of the jacket and stood while Hector placed trackers in my clothes and boots, and one in my hair.

"We'll be with you all the way Bonita, wear this wire so you can tell us where she's sending you"

It was like déjà vu as I drove into that car park, the same one Scrogg had me go to, and with it came the terror as I'd watched Carlos being shot and him bleeding in my hall way, unable to get to him. Focus, Stephanie, I could hear the voice of Carlos in my head, oh god I hope I can do this, please don't let anything happen to him. In the lower parking area I had to drive around to find a bike. Some cars were parked, but only one bike.

"Found it, I'm getting out of the car, can't see anyone"

The back box was open and inside was the keys, a helmet and a note. I read the note out loud.

"Cure Insurance Arena, Hamilton Avenue, then walk to gate B"

I left my keys in the car, put on the helmet and sitting astride the bike started the engine. It was a standard BMW R line T, so was easy to handle as I maneuvered back out onto the street. The arena was close by and I parked as close as I could, leaving the keys in and helmet with it, I wasn't bothered if someone stole it.

"Walking toward the gate now, shit there're so many people here, it must be the end of a concert and everyone is leaving"

Maybe my Merry Men would be closer if they mingled with the crowd, there must be

something big happening here for this many people. As I reached the gate an arm linked through mine and started to pull me toward the entrance, I couldn't make out who it was; I didn't recognize their face only that they were wearing biker clothes.

"Where are we going?"

No response only a grunt as he handed over tickets to get us in. A few turns and I was pushed through a door and into what was obviously an office block. A turn to the right and through a door and I was in a large room with chairs stacked up against a wall.

"Put her against that wall and then come behind me. You get the gems from her"

Four men all dressed like bikers walked to the other side of the room. A woman dressed in brown trousers and a thick brown long coat was giving the orders. I studied her face, gaunt features with wrinkled skin clinging to cheek and jaw bones, hanging down in folds, white hair pulled back into a French roll at the base of her neck, but it was her eyes that drew me, cold and grey. The man who had brought me in stood in front of me.

"You gonna hand them over or do you want you me to search you?"

I shuddered at that thought, so pulled the velvet roll out from my jacket and handed them to him.

"Alright make sure you're behind me or your phones will be toast"

She pulled a device from a very large shoulder bag and pointed it at me, as she pressed a button there was a humming sound that increased in loudness, then suddenly stopped. What the hell was that?

"Every electronic device on you will be dead now"

OK that answered that question, and I knew the trackers in the gems would be working, I felt a bit braver.

"Where is Carlos, you said you'd let him go"

"All in due time my dear. That man must have nine lives, he's managed to escape twice now, the plane and that bomb in his office. He and the likes of him are scum, you are a disgrace to even be in his company, your mother was right, and you're not worthy, such a disappointment. You two take her to the suite and I'll meet you there later"

Two men approached me and while one held my arms I felt a sting in the side of my neck. I was aware of moving, maybe even walking, definitely being supported as we wove between people watching as they moved out of my way, why didn't they help me? My head was achy and my eyes only saw blurred images, my muscles moved but only because I was controlling them enough to put one foot in front of the other. Noises and voices blurred, she's ill, too drunk, came through. Why would they think that? Fresh air hit me as we exited into the darkness and then I was laid onto the floor of a van and the blackness took over. When I got the energy to open my eyes I was laid out on a couch in a bedroom suite. My head felt dizzy and I felt sick, very slowly I sat up looking for something to be sick in. Yeah even in the worst situation I couldn't just heave onto the floor. I spied a bin by a desk and lurched forward, throwing up just as I reached the bin. On my knees on the floor with the bin in my arms I continued to empty the contents of my stomach. I felt a warm wet cloth on my neck and turned to look into the face of a stranger. He actually looked concerned.

"I'm sorry they had to drug you"

"Yeah right"

"No honestly, I don't want to see you hurt"

"So what do you want?"

"We need you to decipher the papers that were in the bank safety box"

I stood up with the bin still in front of me; I could always use it as a weapon couldn't I?

"What if there's nothing there?"

"There has to be"

"Why?"

"To protect the names of our comrades"

"So you think that the papers have names hidden in them?"

"Yes, Elspeth told me that the old man had hidden them in it"

"Who are you trying to protect? Whose names do you think are hidden?"

"They are good men, fighting to put a stop to all this chaos"

"What about Carlos?"

"Who?"

"Elspeth kidnapped Carlos and said she'd let him go if I helped her. Well here I am, so you need to let him go. I won't help you with that paper until I know he's safe"

"I don't know anything about that, she told me you were sympathetic to the cause"

"You've lost me now, what cause?"

"For a pure society, to stop all of the violence that comes from the conflict because of religion and race"

Okay, was he serious?

"So your idea is to kill people and beat them up, is that your idea of stopping the violence?"

He was a nut, delusional, had Elspeth managed to brainwash this guy? He wasn't that old, maybe in his forties brown hair with the telling signs of grey flecks running through, but it was his face that told a story, he had thin lines around his eyes and lines across his forehead, he had a look of someone permanently under stress.

"No, I've seen too much violence, we have to change the ideology of people through politics and leaders, through synchrony and harmony"

"So why are you involved with this, with her?"

"She's a believer"

"She's a manipulative bitch who's kidnapped Carlos and nearly got me killed for greed"

"Who the hell is this Carlos?"

"Ricardo Carlos Manoso"

"Ranger?"

"Yes"

I was at the point of shouting at him, but at my exclamation he visibly paled and his face contorted into an expression of shock, disbelief?

"Oh god, Ranger! Oh no, why? I'm a dead man"

"Glad you understand now"

Was I being sarcastic? Hell yes I was, anything to get him to realize the dire situation we were in.

"But she told me we were finding and helping people, I even got hold of equipment for them so no one would have to be hurt"

"You better get me outta here before she comes back and help me find Ranger before she really hurts him"

That seemed to spring into action, he took the bin from my arms throwing it on the floor and with my hand in his dragged me to the door.

"Wait, are there any men outside?"

"Good point let me check"

He opened the door a fraction, looked out, and then pushed me to stand behind the door, then shouted out through the door.

"Hey, I need your help in here"

Shouting to someone out in the hallway, he stepped aside as a burly man in leathers came in, and then he hit him with a punch in his throat. The man went down, out cold. Impressive! We moved from the hallway to the stairs and out through the back emergency exit. I looked back to see where we had been, the Estonia Hotel, hell was it only a few weeks ago I'd done that distraction here? He beeped a black SUV open and helped me into the passenger seat before sliding into the drivers seat and started the engine to accelerate quickly out onto the main road.

"What's your name?"

"Don"

"So you know Ranger?"

"Yes, I've worked with him"

"So you don't know what's been going on?"

"No, I've been away from the office for a while, my doctor said I needed to rest, but then Elspeth got in touch"

"How do you know her?"

"She's on one of the committees that campaign against the use of violence to overcome serious threats against the state"

"Serious threats? How does that involve you?"

"I work for the Government, Serious crimes unit, I see so much and I can't take it any more."

"Where are we going?"

"To get Ranger, I'm so sorry, I didn't know what she was planning. She just asked me to help work with a woman on some papers"

How did I respond to that, he had obviously been caught up with her deceit and lies, maybe not a bad guy after all? When I worked out the direction he was going I realized we were heading toward the docks.

"Err, Don do you have a plan for when we get there?"

"I'm going to talk to her, she'll see reason"

Not a chance, and not only that but the Merry Men would be there, would they see Don as the enemy? I didn't get a chance to even say anything more as large gates opened, and we were driving through the open doors into a large storage area. There was a car and lots of motorbikes parked. As we exited the car two men walked through a side door and came up to us. Don walked up to them with me stood behind.

"I need to speak with Elspeth"

I could tell from the expression on their faces that wasn't gonna happen, they laughed at him.

"Don't think so, get back in the car and take her back to the hotel, you just need to do your job"

I'm not sure who moved first, Don or me, or maybe we just reacted at the same time, but as I punched the first man in the face, Don gave his a kick to the stomach. I followed up with a knee to the groin that had him doubled over, so a fist to the neck knocked him onto the floor. By that time Don's man was unconscious as well. He turned to me.

"We need to tie them up, see if you can find something"

I found some old rope hidden in a pile of rubbish and Don tied them up and heaved them behind some old crates stacked in a corner.

"Don't you have a gun Don?"

"No, I didn't think I needed to bring one. I'll go first so stay behind me, out of sight"

Right, like that was going to happen, I knew Carlos was here, I could sense him. We kept to the wall as we walked down the corridor from the where we'd come from, no other doors other than three right at the end. Shit, nowhere to escape to if anyone came out. The silence was uncanny, surely if someone was here they'd be talking? Don tried to open the door on his right, locked, I pointed to the one on the left, I knew Carlos was in there. With me to the left of the door and Don to the right he slowly turned the door handle, this one opened, so listening carefully he slowly pushed it open to look through the crack and inside. He looked at me and held up two fingers, OK I'm sure that meant two men, then he pointed at me and pointed to the left then at himself and pointed to the right. I was getting the hang of this signing. He swung the door open and quickly headed in; a moment later I followed and went for the guy on the left. There was a stand off between us; he looked at me with a smirk, as if to say, a girl? Yeah okay he probably thought I wasn't a threat, after all he was way over six foot tall and looked to weigh over 300 pounds, even the leathers he was wearing couldn't hide the fact that he was huge. I took a quick look to take in the room, quite large, maybe thirty foot long and twenty foot wide, with a double door along one wall. Unfortunately Don wasn't doing so well with the man who had attacked him, as he had fallen to the floor with the man on top, but then all hell broke loose. Men in black came in through the door we'd just used and a dozen or so leather clad bikers stormed through the double doors. Unfortunately with all the commotion I'd let that biker grab hold of me by my hair.

Chapter 32

As I became conscious I was aware of excruciating pain shooting through my chest, I didn't dare take a deep breath because I knew from experience what broken ribs felt like. It didn't help that the ropes pulling on my wrists were holding my body weight up. The only consolation was that I could put my feet firmly on the floor, and take some of the strain from my shoulders and arms. I hadn't opened my eyes yet and moved very slowly trying to judge what condition the rest of me was in. I became aware of voices, but they seemed so far way, far enough to risk opening my eyes by only a slit so as not to let them know I was conscious. My head was hung down on my chest so I only had a view of my bare feet, cargos and bare chest. Some one had beaten the shit out of my torso, dried blood and the beginning of bruises, there were lacerations across my chest that were long and deep. The floor was concrete, dirty and dusty, so not somewhere they often used. I slowly raised my head until I had a better view, there must have been a dozen or more men, sat round tables, playing cards or drinking beers, all wearing leather trousers, tattoos showing from underneath black T-shirts, so these were the men that made up a biker gang being used as henchmen? No one was really taking much notice of me. I considered my options, a lot of men to overcome, and feeling how I felt I knew I wouldn't last five minutes. My head was swimming, my were eyes trying to close, until I felt my legs give way and I sank back into the blackness. A loud voice pulled me from my darkness, followed by cold water on my face and chest, another voice nearby replying.

"Yeah he's awake, douse him again"

Then my hair was pulled back so my head was lifted up and water was poured down my face, I spluttered as it went up my nose and down my throat.

"Yeah the spick's awake, here use this instead of your fist"

I heard the whooshing sound just before pain radiated from my arm, locking my jaw I refused to give them the pleasure of hearing my pain, they didn't like that because the next wave of pain came from my shoulder. As soon as the strikes began they stopped, I heard a bar hit the floor and shouts from afar.

"Where the hell did those two prospects get to?"

"What the hell, come on you one per centers we've got company"

I relaxed my legs to take my weight and struggled to see what was happening, I could sense something, but because I was still not fully working through the pain, I struggled to focus. Then it hit me, my Babe was here, outside that door where the sound of fighting was coming from. I struggled to gain some sort of leverage, to try to free myself, I had to save my Babe, and she couldn't be hurt again. The door pushed open and there she was, anger radiating from her eyes. A thug had his arm around her neck, I knew the moment she saw me, alarm, concern and outright rage crossed over her face, he changed his grip and grabbed hold of her hoping to keep her in place, if I hadn't been in so much pain I would have laughed as the scene unfolded before me. She threw her head back into his face, the force breaking his nose and blood pouring from it, clearly surprising the thug, but it gave Steph the opportunity to turn around and start to kick and punch the crap out of him, even as he lay on the floor clearly unconscious, she put her foot in his face, stomach and groin. As her presence of mind returned, she turned to me and screamed.

"Carlos, oh my god, Carlos. Kade help"

Kade came running into the room, a quick scan of the thug on the floor and knowing he was no threat then I felt him take my weight as the ropes were cut, the last thing I heard from Stephs lips.

"Carlos you don't leave me now, you talk to me, you have to be all right"


	17. Chapter 33 & 34

Chapter 33

Angel and Bobby sat on either side of me, each holding a hand; they'd been with me ever since we'd left that warehouse. I'd been in a hell of state, I couldn't get my breath and was close to passing out, Angel threatened to sedate me, until through sobs I'd pulled myself together a bit, but the tears wouldn't stop and my heart wouldn't slow down. It felt just like the time Morelli had rushed me to the hospital when Carlos was shot. I couldn't walk, too weak, and overcome with a deep-seated dread in the pit of my stomach. I couldn't loose him now, I'd only really just found him, we were going to live together, and he was my life. At the hospital Carlos was taken straight to the emergency room and then into the theatre. Nurses came in and spoke but I didn't hear their words, only when a doctor came in and asked for his next of kin did I feel myself taking notice. Tank stood me up, with an arm round my waist, to hear what he had to say. I heard the words broken ribs, broken arm and dislocated shoulder? So why was he still in theatre? Internal bleeding, loss of blood and bone fragments to remove, that was what they were worried about, at least four hours until they would know how he would be. The time floated past slowly, the room now filled with men in black, each tried their best to console me, to say something to get a reaction from me, but I was lost. Lost in memories, feelings and an overwhelming feeling of fear and despair. I couldn't eat, drink or sleep even though I knew my body needed something, I felt physically sick at the thought of anything.

"Steph"

I looked up at the sound of the voice to see Mary Lou stood in front me; she bent down and hugged me.

"He'll be all right, Steph, he's strong"

"Thanks Lou, why are you here?"

"Everyone's heard what happened, look, others are here for you as well"

I looked around the now packed waiting room to see Lula and Connie sat next to Tank, Eddie sat with Lester. The doors banged open causing everyone to go quiet, hoping that the doctor was returning. I heard the words before I looked.

"Stephanie Michelle Plum, what are you doing here with these thugs, you need to come home now"

As I looked up into the face of my mother all I could see was fury emanating from her.

"Do you realize what you've done? Who you've put into mortal jeopardy? You are a selfish child, how can you sit here with the likes of these criminals and miscreants? You should never have been born"

My Grandmother and father followed her in, my father taking hold of her arm and turning her toward him.

"Ellen, you leave Steph alone, in fact if you don't put a stop to your outrageous talk, I'll drag you out myself"

I wasn't the only one to stare at my father in disbelief, but my mother wasn't in the least bit fazed by his words.

"She needs to leave and come home, she needs to learn her place if she wants to stay part of this family. All she does is get other people hurt and ignore her family"

As she made a move toward me several things happened all at once. Bobby stood up to shield me from her; Dad pulled her back and then my mother collapsed onto the floor, with Grandma stood over her holding a stun gun in her hand.

"I don't know where she came from, she's no daughter of mine, and I raised her better than this. Frank get her out of here"

Several Merry Men came forward and helped my father to lift her up and remove her from the room; Grandma came and sat next to me, thankfully putting the stun gun back into her bag.

"Oh Baby Girl I'm so sorry, she's lost it, I know that's no excuse but I don't know why she's so vindictive. Hell Ranger and these men have saved you over and over again, it's so obvious they care for you, certainly more than she does"

"Thanks Grandma"

I didn't really know what else to say. Was I that bad that she would disown me?

"Frank's had enough of her, and even that older sister of yours. Val's been filled with your mothers lies and between them they're the talk of the Burg as being the worst people around for how they've treated you"

I simply looked at her; my Grandma had always been there for me, even when I was little she'd keep me at her house making sure my mother left me alone.

"Frank got me a phone so I can given my number to that big, fine specimen of a man, Tank I think he's called. Call me when you need me, I'm staying with Mavis for the time being"

She hugged me and I kissed her on the cheek, it felt so natural to do, was it just my mother who didn't show affection? Or was it that she didn't really love me? The low buzzing of talking came back and I settled back onto my seat, this time Kade sat with me, with Angel on the other side, Bobby must have left, hopefully to get an update on Carlos.

At last the doctor returned with Bobby, and as he turned to Tank, tears began to fall down my cheeks, I knew he was alive, I'd feel the loss of him wouldn't I? Resting now, in ICU, only two visitors? Yes he was going to be all right! I allowed Tank to lead me to the unit, looking through the glass panel all I could see was Carlos.

"Ma-am?"

"Sorry"

"He's still very weak, blood pressure and oxygen levels are still low, so I'll only allow you a few minutes with him"

No, he had to be kidding; I was going to be with him until he woke up. Tank picked up on what I wanted and needed; he led the doctor to one side and returned with a smile on his face.

"You can stay as long as you want Little Girl"

"Thanks Tank"

I stood over Carlos, tracing fingertips over his cheek and jaw; a sheet was lying across his hips leaving his chest uncovered. Oh god he was bruised all over with dressings taped to his side and under his arm, an IV attached to his hand with three bags steadily feeding the drip, a cast on his arm. I pulled the chair to his side and sitting on the edge, lent over with my head next to his hand, one hand resting on his head and a hand in mine. The beeping became hypnotic and I dozed between watching his chest rise and fall. People came in and out but I didn't notice, Bobby and Angel took turns sitting with me, trying to persuade me to eat or go out for some fresh air, but I refused to move. As I continued to drift I dreamed, hands in my hair a caress of my cheek, I moved in to the touch and looked up to see a pair of beautiful brown eyes looking back at me. I cried with joy.

"Happy tears querida?"

"Oh Carlos, Te amo, I've been so worried"

"I'm fine, just a few weeks to mend, everything is going to be okay"

I let go of a breath I didn't know I was holding, grasping onto his hand afraid to let go.

He slept a lot the next the day, but the doctors were pleased with his progress; in between we talked about our future and us together, he told me about his family, his family! I looked to Bobby when he came in.

"Steph, what's wrong?"

"His family, do they know?"

"Yes, Juan flew in from Miami this morning so he's going to pick them up and come over this evening"

"Thanks Bobby"

Juan arrived that evening with a couple, I assumed were Carlos's parents and two of his sisters. I recognized all of them from when Carlos had been in the hospital after Scrogg shot him. I made to get up and leave but the older lady swept me into her arms.

"No, hija, you must stay, I've heard all about you from Juan and how much you and Carlos are to each other. You are part of this family now"

"Thank you Mrs. Manoso"

"No, hija, you are a daughter to me now, call me Maris"

His family chatted with each other and with me, when Carlos was showing signs of being tired they left, making me promise to stay in touch and to visit them soon.

By the second day I'd relented to Carlos telling me to go home and get some proper sleep and eat a meal. Lester was with me as we drove into the garage at Rangeman.

"Why are we here?"

"Because Beautiful this is where you belong, go eat, shower and sleep then meet in Rangers office in the morning, OK?"

"OK"

The apartment on seven seemed so empty without Carlos there, I was still in a daze as I nibbled on some cheese and crackers then showered and slept. Boy did I sleep; I was out for over twelve hours. I still didn't feel totally right but right enough. I met Lester in Rangers office the following morning, surprised to see the whole team there, they must have been waiting for me to emerge from the apartment.

"You sleep well Bonita?"

"Yes, I was out for the count"

"Little Girl why don't you sit down?"

I stood still, had something happened to Carlos, was he ill again?

"No Beautiful, Ranger's fine, in fact he asked us to give you an update on what happened after we found him"

"Oh"

Kade pushed me down into the seat of the couch and knelt down so he could look into my eyes.

"Ranger had called in a high ranking official before he was kidnapped so he took over after we got him and you out. He arranged for Elspeth to be arrested and she's now in prison awaiting trial. We found her through the trackers in the jewelry. Steph, your mother also had some pieces of the jewelry so she was arrested as well"

I didn't expect that, I mean did she take them as payment, because she felt they were hers? Or was it because she didn't want me to have them? And how did I feel about that?

"I'm glad Elspeth is behind bars, I don't know how to feel about my mother"

"She betrayed you Bonita and there's no right or wrong way to feel about that, the courts will decide her fate"

"What about those bikers?"

"Arrested, most had charges from other states, so they'll be away for a long time. One of them admitted to following you in Miami and he sabotaged the plane. His excuse was that Elspeth had given the orders for Ranger to be killed. You know how much they hated anyone who wasn't white? Well Elspeth had the same feeling of hatred against Ranger because of his color and race"

"Don?"

"Well, after the General listened to him and looked at all the evidence he won't be charged, but he'll be taking a long sick leave and looking at options outside of the agency he worked for. Though he was responsible for that dam EMP devise getting into the hands of Elspeth"

"So everyone who's been a part of her vendetta is now dealt with?"

"Yes, everyone, you're free of any threat"

"There wasn't anything in those documents was there?"

"No, it was exactly as Thomas Grossman told you, a copy of one of Shakespeare's plays"

"So what happens to the jewelry?"

"Nothing, they belong to you"

What would I do with them? I didn't deserve them. Hector made a move to bring me out of my thoughts.

"Estefania, time to go to the hospital"

I looked up at Hector and stood up to leave, then turned to the men who stood around me.

"Thank you, all of you, for being there when I needed you, for trusting me and helping me, you are the bestest of friends I have ever had"

So with a lot on my mind I went to seek out the only person who knew me well enough to talk through a lot of this. I fell into a pattern over the next few days, sleeping and eating at Rangeman but being at the hospital as Carlos woke until he fell asleep at night.

A week later Carlos was back home, I'd never known him be so grouchy, but then I suppose I was the same if I couldn't do the things I wanted to do. He was still in a lot of pain but refused any of the medication the hospital sent home with him. His lower arm was in a black cast, but because of the injury to his shoulder and ribs the arm was strapped across his chest. He complained that everything he wanted to do required two hands and he hated having to ask for help. He forced me to go out, to give him some peace from my hovering, I'd never had anyone I cared enough about to hover over before. So after two days of us being together all of the time I spent the afternoon with Grandma at my old apartment, showing her the letter and the jewelry.

"Baby girl what he said was true, you are so much like my mother, your eyes and your spirit. I am so disappointed with your mother, she became a bitter, selfish woman"

"I'm sorry too Grandma, I wish things had turned out differently, is there anything I can do for you?"

"You keep that jewelry, they're your inheritance and you must carry on the line from Hungary, tell your children the story of how we got here and be proud. It's something I should have done"

"But they are yours Grandma"

"No, I'm too old now, you have your whole life ahead of you"

"Is there anything I can do for you, or that you need?"

"Baby Girl, what you doing about this apartment of yours?"

"Do I get the feeling you want it?"

"Well I aint living with her no more, there's plenty of old folk here, and some of them fellas have got cars"

"Fine by me, it's all yours. Give me a shout when you want help to move in"

"Tomorrow OK?"

Wow she was keen to move in.

I hadn't been back to my family home, Val had totally ignored me and was trying hard to say everything was my fault, Dad, well he was shocked. He didn't blame me and he tried to explain that my mother had always tried to manipulate me to be someone she wanted, to be like her, but I was never going to be as good as her, was she just jealous of me? The marriage to Dickie, wanting me married with children, cooking meals and being the perfect Burg housewife was her dream. She couldn't cope for me to inherit the jewelry because in her eyes that meant I was better than her, and she wouldn't tolerate that. So Dad and I came out of this with a stronger, more equal relationship, each respecting the other. He'd moved out of the family home and was thinking of going to live near his brother in Florida, his main regret was not seeing his grandchildren, but then Val wasn't being nice to him either. I hoped that the girls would escape the tyranny that Val seemed to have inherited from our mother. Grandma moved into my old apartment, with my help and a lot of the Merry Men, on the condition she didn't grope any of them. I spent my afternoons meeting up with friends, my father or Grandmother, I was still picking up skips but Carlos insisted I took a partner with me. Kade and most of his men had returned home as they had business to pick up on, we had a riotous evening before they left, using one of the conference rooms to hold a banquet in their honor. Dad and Grandma came to give their thanks and say goodbye. Bobby was the least jovial of us all and then I realized the reason when I caught him with Angel by the stairwell, I was pleased they had eventually got together, but sorry that distance could be a problem. As we bid them farewell in the garage each one came up to me to say their own special goodbye.

"May the force be with you Padawan"

"Bonita, I expect to see you soon"

Gaz, Sam and Jobe each gave me a big hug and kiss on the cheek, and Angel, well we'd spent the afternoon together, trying to come up with ways to spend more time together, but for now it was Face time and phone calls. When they had gone it seemed so quiet, I missed having my training with Tobi so I asked Lester and Ram to work with me.

I had told Carlos I wanted to attend the trials of Morelli and my mother. Morelli was being charged with discharging his weapon, grievous bodily harm and breaking and entering with theft and destruction of property. It would be taking place exactly two weeks after Carlos had left the hospital. I was so nervous as we prepared to leave Rangeman. I'd chosen to wear a conservative skirt in dark blue, with matching jacket and a pale blue blouse with matching shoes. I'd had an appointment with Mr. Alexander the day before and he'd trimmed my hair, then Mary Lou and I had gone to a local spa for a body massage and our nails done. I felt more like myself and Carlos said he loved the feel of my curls. As we travelled to the courthouse I felt nervous, I'm not sure why. Lester was driving as Carlos had another week before he was allowed to even remove his arm from the sling. He held my hand all the way and through out the trial. Morellis appearance and demeanor shocked me. He was pale and looked gaunt, his hair was disheveled and he now wore the beginning of a beard, his clothes hung loose on a body that had lost weight and his gait was slow and stooped; he really was a broken man and I saw nothing of the man I thought I once loved. In a low gravelly voice he pleaded guilty to all charges. His sentenced, even taking into account his lawyers account of his mental instability, was to serve ten years in an open prison out of state. I don't think he even saw me, and that was fine by me, I felt nothing as he was walked out of the court in shackles, no sense of loss or regret.

Chapter 34

Steph had been unusually quiet since I'd come home from the hospital, I knew she was worried about the up coming trials and I wasn't sure about her going, but she seemed to need to go, so I supported her. She still hadn't got her appetite back properly and was tired a lot so I'd planned for us to go away straight after the her mothers trial, it was going to be a surprise, going straight to the airport and flying out. Morellis trial had been sobering, he'd been such a good cop, and he'd lost himself. Maybe it was the conflict of duty and his loyalty to Steph, but in the end he hadn't really been able to accept his final decision, and it had broken him, literally. I don't think Steph felt any resolution, she has a kind soul and whilst she wanted closure I'm not sure she achieved it. Her mother's trial would be more difficult, but Steph felt that she now knew why her mother had acted as she did, and that it answered a lot of the questions she had, about how her mother had treated her. I felt closer to her now she was living here and relished our private time together, moments like sharing the bathroom to wash and brush our teeth, her things and mine next to each other. I still wasn't cleared for any thing physical, so sex was out, but it didn't dampen our relationship, in fact it was stronger. Lester drove us to the courthouse, although my arm was free of the sling having Lester with us gave another layer to the security I wanted. Steph had been okay with that, she was close to him as a friend and felt comfortable with him. I'd also asked Tank to send Ram and Vince to make sure there were no surprises waiting for us as we entered or left the courthouse. There were the usual reporters that shouted out to her, some seemed sympathetic others trying to bait her. Steph seemed to be in a trance as she walked with us, totally unaware of the noise and scuffling around her. She had dressed as she had for Morellis trial, I'd wanted to buy her new clothes, hell I could afford it, but she refused. So here we sat waiting for her mother to enter the courtroom and for the judge. Mrs. Plum wore a dark brown suit with cream blouse and looked the epitome of a good wife, mother and housewife. There were a lot of people here for this trial; many, I felt, were only there for the eventual gossip that it would produce. It could take a few days for it to be completed; it really depended on how Mrs. Plum's lawyer advised her. When the charges were read there was a lot of noise from the spectators, obviously they didn't know the depth of her involvement. The main thrust of the charges lay in the conspiracy between Mrs. Plum and Elspeth Langman, that there had been an agreement between them to commit a crime, even if this was to accomplish a legal end through illegal actions. She had also conspired to injure, threaten and intimidate which carried a very hefty fine or prison time. The fact that Steph had been followed and stalked, been in a plane that was sabotaged seriously enough for it to crash and then seriously injured only added to the penalty that could be given. And let's not forget that Mrs. Plum had been caught red handed with the evidence of the fake gems, adding conspiracy to kidnap, of both Steph and myself. As the charges were read Stephs demeanor became more confident as Mrs. Plums plummeted. The courtroom was absolutely silent, waiting for her to say out loud her response. Guilty. Now that was a surprise, maybe her lawyer had taken a plea bargain for lesser charges if she turned as a state witness against Elspeth. Steph stood up and turned to leave before the judge announced his judgment.

"I don't need to hear that, knowing that she says she's guilty makes me feel better, so let's get out of here"

I helped her as we exited the courtroom, no one said a thing, but they watched as she left, Mr. Plum nodded at me as we passed. I'd spoken to him on a few occasions, as he was concerned for Steph and how she was coping. Hector was driving the car we got into outside of the courthouse, Lester was riding shotgun, and soon we were headed toward the private airfield. I'd packed enough clothes for both of us and the bags were already with the plane.

"Where are we going? This isn't the way back home"

"Surprise Babe, we both deserve a break"

She didn't look surprised as we walked over toward the jet and seemed to be happier than she'd been in awhile, but the sparkle in her eyes was still missing, when she entered the cabin she turned, looking right at me.

"So where are the parachutes?"

There was laughter from the cockpit and a head peered out.

"On the right, we had one made especially for you"

"Oh no, not until he's fully recovered, then I'll give it a go again"

The flight was long but smooth, I'd made sure all of Stephs favorite films were onboard but after a meal she slept and slept more deeply than I can remember. The landing was a bit bumpy and as we taxied toward the hanger there were the jeeps waiting to meet us. The smile on Stephs face was brilliant, I was so glad to have made the decision to come here.

"Welcome back Bonita, but I'm gonna get a reputation as being a convalescent location"

"Kade, I'm so pleased to see you"

"Good, so how are things going?"

"Good, today I feel lighter and that maybe now I can start to look forward with my life"

"I'm pleased, Angel is waiting at the house, and you're in the same rooms as before"

"Hey Padawan, you ready to take me on yet?"

"Tobi you're here as well, that's amazing!"

"Come on, I'll take you on a scenic route round the island, that's if Ranger trusts me with you?"

He came up to me and we fist bumped, and then I turned to him with a serious face.

"I trust her with you, you I'm not so sure about"

We laughed and Kade and I watched as Steph and Tobi climbed into his jeep, laughing and joking.

"So Ranger, how's she doing? I got an update just before you landed of the trials in Trenton"

"I don't know, it's been hard on her. I don't think there was any strong reaction toward the outcome for Morelli, she'd almost resigned herself to that, but he wasn't the same person that she knew. Her mother, well as you'll know we left before the sentence was given, but Steph has spent a lot of time with her Grandmother, and I suppose she has reconciled how her mother treated her all of her life and now feels that it wasn't her fault, it was her mothers selfishness"

"Well for your information she got fifteen years, but with the possibility for early parole"

"What about the others"

"Oh they got the book thrown at them, all sorts of priors came out of the woodwork, Langman and Langley had a list of charges as long as your arm, and as both were high visibility members of government groups they each got life for treason. The bikers varied from attempted murder, kidnapping and assault plus lesser charges they won't be out for a very long time. What happened with that lawyer?"

"We couldn't really pin anything on him sufficient to get him charged, but the State of New Jersey has disbarred him, not sure what he'll do now, but I know he's moved out of state"

"Good, so now you and your lady can relax here for as long as you want"

"Thanks Kade, for everything"

We'd arrived at the bay by now and I saw Angel come out to meet us.

"Ranger, how're the injuries healing?"

"They're healing, sometimes too slow for me"

"Well I can probably give you some physio to help?"

"Yeah that sounds good Angel"

"How's Steph?"

"Let's walk and talk, she's with Tobi on a tour of the island right now"

"Sounds like fun, walk along the beach then"

We walked through the house allowing me to drop our bags in our room, I lost my shoes preferring to go barefoot, but decided changing clothes would be too much for me with my arm and ribs. As I came out of the house Angel was waiting, she walked up to me and taking my T-shirt by the hem slowly helped me to take it off, one arm at a time.

"Thanks Angel, I'm still struggling with the most basic things"

"Then you'll have to learn to ask for help won't you? How about we get rid of this cast then you can start to exercise that arm?"

In the main house she had everything ready, the cast wasn't heavy or thick, it was there mainly to give support while the bone in my arm healed. She used snips to carefully cut down each side then opened the cast to release my arm, god that felt better; I flexed my hand and arm, feeling it with my other hand, no pain just a little stiffness. Angel smiled at my obvious pleasure that the freedom brought.

"Ready for that walk now?"

I laughed with her as we walked down onto the beach; Angel stopped and sat down, waiting for me to join her. Sitting next to her I tried hard to put my concerns into words.

"I'm worried about her. It's the little things, she isn't really eating as she used to do, doesn't show her enjoyment at the tastes. Sometimes she 's tired and can sleep for hours, then she'll have nights when she can't settle. I know I haven't helped with these dam injuries, sometimes I feel so frustrated"

"Ranger it's been stressful for both of you, now that everything is finally resolved give it time, I'll talk with her as well"

"Thanks Angel, she means everything to me"

There was the sound of laughing from behind us and Steph came onto the beach being chased by Tobi, my heart warmed at the sound of her laughter. She came up behind me and sat at my back with her arms circling me, her legs either side of my hips, her lips caressing my neck.

"Missed you already mi amor"

"Missed you too Babe"

"Tobi why don't you go take Ranger and show him our new gym facilities, I'll catch up with you to start some physio in an hour, that OK with you?"

"Sounds like fun Angel, maybe you can help me with my gear first Tobi?"

I picked up my T-shirt and Tobi and I headed to ward the house.

"That Angels way of getting her time with Steph?"  
"Yeah, though I could do with a hand to sort out some gear"

On the way to the gym I collected some gear to wear then followed Tobi into a very well equipped gym, I groaned, god how I wished I could just spend some time here working out properly, I was into my sixth week so my shoulder and ribs were healing well.

"You'll get there, just start slow and build up"

"All right Tobi lets start with what I know I can do, I've been doing shoulder-blade squeezes and deep breathing exercises, leg presses and leg lifts"

"Okay then lets get you walking on the treadmill, but avoid high-impact activity, like running, that jars your rib cage. We'll get you back into upper-body exercises, but slowly. Start lifting 10-lb. free weights and see how it feels. Gradually increase the amount by 5lb, then by easing back into your normal routines, you'll continue to heal without losing much momentum"

"I can work with that"

After an hour I'd done some time on the treadmill increasing my speed as I went along, then pushed myself with my leg exercises, lastly I was lifting 15lb easily but I was beginning to feel the effects of my exertion through my chest. As I finished my last lift and stood up Angel came in.

"How's it been?"

"Hard, but feels good"

"Good, now go get showered and changed, then we're having dinner in the main house"

I entered the cottage quietly and went straight into the shower, my muscles were beginning to tighten and I needed the warmth to relax them, I used my Bulgari soap, then dressed in board shorts and managed more successfully than usual with a T-shirt. I found my Babe outside asleep on a sun chair so carefully maneuvered myself behind her. She stirred and turned to look at me.

"You smell scrumptious and oh so sexy"

"Glad you like it Babe"

"I feel more relaxed now"

"You talk with Angel?"  
"Yeah"

"Anything I can help with?"

"No, I'm fine, everything's good"

"Well we're due to have dinner in the main house soon, you ready to go?"

"Just let me freshen up and I'll be with you"

I watched as she moved into the bedroom and then into the bathroom, and sighed, I couldn't reach her and yet I knew something was worrying her, maybe my plan for tomorrow would bring us closer together again. I couldn't loose her now; I just hoped she needed me as much as I needed her.


	18. Chapter 35 & 36

Chapter 35

Carlos was wrapped around me, his front to my back, and we fit perfectly together. I knew I had been quiet with him; I was still processing what had happened and how in a few weeks so much had changed. My talk with Angel had helped, she was so good at listening, then instead of telling me what to do, she made me think it through and come to my own conclusion, so that was how I was going to approach things. I knew I couldn't blame myself for what my mother had done, but hell, isn't a mother supposed to love her child unconditionally? Had it been me who caused her to despise me? Could I have been a better daughter instead of trying to do things my own way? There were so many thoughts racing through my head, was I good enough for Carlos? Or would he get fed up of me? I needed to stay positive like Angel had told me, live for me and be true to myself.

But first I needed to give my man some loving, even as I turned I knew he was awake, I continued to roll over coming face to face with him. I kissed his nose and his chin and couldn't resist his neck, just underneath his ear.

"Babe, you know I was fit enough to start working out yesterday?"

"Really and why do you think I'd be interested in that?"

At that he copied my moves, first he kissed my nose, then my chin and lastly just below my ear.

"I like this game Carlos"

So I carefully moved until I was astride him, my weight on my arms and knees, and slowly nuzzled my way down to one of his nipples, as I kissed and nipped I could feel his breath hitch, the result of his arousal now between my upper thighs. I continued with my journey, giving each scar on his chest attention and moving my thighs up and down on his now hard erection. God I was getting so turned on myself, I could feel the wetness flowing from my core, Carlos groaned.

"Say if I'm hurting you"

"Babe you're killing me, but in a good way"

I moved my hands down level with his waist, my hair grazing along his hips and then as his moans became louder I knelt up with my opening above his shaft. My hand wrapped around his shaft as the other started to rub through my own curls until my fingers travelled into my wet opening. My moans seemed to encourage his voice.

"Babe I need to feel you"

So using my own juices I coated his shaft, quickening the up and downward movement, using my nails to trace a path from base to head. He automatically lifted his hips and I lowered ever so slowly until he filled me entirely. Oh how I had missed this, craved this and now I was going to get this. Using my thigh muscles I lifted myself up and down, Carlos meeting me on each downward stroke. One hand massaged his sacs the other rubbed my own clit. I could feel myself building and Carlos wasn't far behind, two more deep thrusts and I felt my muscles spasm and a final thrust from Carlos had him fly over the edge with me. I screamed his name above the shout of my own from his mouth and arched my back, placing my hands on his ankles, slowly moving to prolong the incredible feelings surging through my body. As my muscles relaxed I allowed my body to fall back onto his legs, getting my breath back and allowing my heart to slow down. I felt Carlos move and as he brought his knees up I came back up sat on his hips.

"Babe, come closer, let me hold you"

I lay down next to him and as he turned we were back to the position we had started in. He kissed my nose, chin and below my ear, then worked his way across my cheek and devoured my mouth, our tongues dueling with a passion and devotion that consumed me.

"I love you Babe, more than words can say"

"I love you too Carlos, as long as I live"

We lay entangled for several minutes until I became aware of movement outside the window; I shot up, pulling the sheet to cover myself.

"Carlos there's someone out there"

"Probably breakfast, I asked Sofia for some to be brought around for us"

"I could eat breakfast"

I literally grabbed a bikini, shorts and top and hopped into the shower, OK, I normally take my time, but today I beat my own world record, hair, body washed and dressed ready to eat something. I fingered leave on conditioner in my hair and headed for the terrace. I sat in the same chair where I first looked out onto the sea. I poured us both a coffee and with my milk and sugar slowly sipped on it. Carlos came through the door with board shorts hanging low on his hips, his hair was wet and droplets slowly meandered their way down his chest. I was mesmerized just watching that lowly drop, and licked my lips.

"See something you like Babe?"

"Oh yeah, I like"

He laughed and sat in the next chair helping him self to a bagel and cream cheese. Today while I felt hungrier than I had in a while, I chose muesli with natural yoghurt and fresh fruit.

"I thought we could out for the day, what do you think?"

"Anything is fine by me"

"Then put a bag together because we may stay out over night"

"What? What will I need to pack?"

As I was talking he was going to the drawers and pulled out clothes to go in a bag, then he moved to the closet and pulled out a long white dress, I don't remember that, I'm sure it wasn't mine. By the time I'd stopped pondering what exactly was in the closet Carlos had clothes for me and himself packed into a bag.

"Anything else Babe?"

"No, I don't think so"

"Let's go then"

We walked through the house and out to the parked jeeps, Tobi was stood next to one and nodded at Carlos as we approached. He drove us out of the bay we were in and went? I don't know where, but it was inland, after maybe ten minutes we entered another bay that had a rocky beach but oh my! There was a large jetty with boats in every conceivable shape, size and color. Tobi stopped the jeep, got out and picked up our bags; I was still sat staring out at the scene in front of me.

" Babe?"

"Sorry, just, err, admiring the view?"

Tobi laughed and headed down the jetty to a beautiful white yacht, I felt Carlos take my hand and follow him across the gangplank and onto the deck area at the back of the boat.

"It's beautiful"

"It is, lets go up top while we go out of the bay"

We went up a set of stairs to find and elderly gentleman steering, sat on a white swivel chair in front of the wheel. He smiled as we approached.

"I 'm Jack your crew for the day, my wife Sofia is with us and will serve your meals. When we put down anchor we will be in the lower deck areas if you need us"

"Thank you Jack"

"Babe why don't you go downstairs to the level below where we came on and change into swimwear"

"I'm ahead of you Batman, already got one on"

Carlos smiled at me and we returned to the deck below, sitting on the sun chairs together to watch as the island disappeared behind us. That day was glorious, the sea was warm and calm and we spent hours swimming and floating together. Carlos was super attentive to me, touching, kissing and holding me. I put on a snorkel to watch the fish swim around me and was absolutely dumbstruck as a pod of dolphins came gracefully toward the boat. I didn't know whether to get out of the water or stay in. Carlos swam up behind me holding me around my waist.

"They're curious and want to play, just reach out and let them feel you"

I reached my arm out as one passed and then finding my courage I swam out on my own. One of the dolphins decided to take an interest in me and swam round me, close enough for me to keep a hand on it, but I wasn't brave enough to hold on. I decided it was a girl; I felt that type of connection as she nuzzled at me and rubbed against me. Her skin was smooth but warm and she had intelligence in the way she moved. I spent what seemed like hours floating with her a constant touching between us, Carlos stayed close by, but eventually he came to me and with me on my back slowly pulled me back to the boat.

"We need to get dry, you're beginning to get cold and dinner will be served soon"

Once on board I found the cabin that served as a bedroom with our bags on a couch. Carlos had left out the white dress and a beautiful set of lingerie. I showered and changed, pinning my hair on top of my head. My skin had a glow to it from the sun, Carlos had put enough sun cream on me to stop my skin from burning, so for once I

went without my usual makeup. Back on the deck I was amazed at the transformation, a table and two chairs sat amidst large vases of flowers and small lights decorated the entire area. Carlos stood to one side and looked at me holding out his hand. As I took it he swirled me into an embrace and music began to play from speakers, a slow classical jazz filled the air. He was an incredible dancer, his movement fluid and erotic.

"You look so beautiful Babe"

I stood back and took in the view of him in a white shirt and trousers, bare feet with a diamond stud in his ear. This man was magic, beautiful and all mine, I felt happier than I had done in a long while.

He led me to the table that was set out with plates containing different foods.

Curry Shrimp with Chopped Salad and Creamy Avocado Dressing, Scallops and Black Beluga Lentils with Micro greens, Chocolate Coffee Rubbed Steak, Cocoa and Chili Spiced Pork with Cherry Sauce. Everyone sent my taste buds on fire, succulent and tasty.

"Those were amazing, I've never tasted anything so delicious"

"I'm glad you liked them Babe"

Sofia came as we finished and cleared away the dishes; Carlos took me to the seat at the back of the boat, I expected him to sit next to me, instead he knelt down in front of me.

"Babe, I love you so much, I find each day I need more of you, to be with you, to love you, I want our someday, our forever, to grow old together, laugh together, cry together. You are my best friend; my lover and I want you to be my wife. Marry me Babe"

From his pocket he took out a small box and opened it to remove a beautiful antique ring, a white square cut diamond with leaf shaped diamonds surrounding it. My eyes filled with tears, this was my dream come true, to be loved and cherished by the love of my life. I knelt down in front of him and looking into his eyes I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out, yes me lost for words. I kissed him softly on the lips.

"Yes, I want to share my love with you, forever"

He placed the ring on my finger, kissing my palm, and then pulling me to him gently kissing my mouth, teasing with his tongue until I turned my head to deepen his entry, dueling and exploring.

"Te amo mi amor por siempre"

The feelings I had were of absolute joy, I wasn't afraid, I had no doubts, and this was what I truly wanted. He lifted and carried me, with my legs around his waist and arms around his neck, down to the bedroom one deck below, our mouths still fused together with a kiss that was becoming increasingly passionate. He let me slide down onto my feet and very slowly pulled the straps of my dress down my shoulders, his mouth now travelling down my neck to my breasts. My body was humming with anticipation and as the dress slipped over my hips to pool at my feet Carlos's mouth followed its path, my panties disappearing. Now on his knees in front of me he placed my leg over his shoulder, opening me for his mouth, and that magical tongue to delve into my now wet folds. He supported me with firm hands on my hips as I responded to his touch, building me higher. Then he stopped! He stood removing his shirt, so I released the button and zip on his trousers, commando, and then my hands began to explore his hard erection. Lifting me with him onto the bed he knelt down and had me kneeling with my legs on either side of his hips. He was exactly where I needed him to be. I rose up on my knees and moved down, his shaft entering me slowly. Our movement was slow and sensual almost a rocking but the effect was magical, I felt my whole body responding. There were no loud shouts only murmuring and sighs, his mouth on my face, and then he knelt up and with a hand under my hips, lowering my back till only my shoulders supported me, my legs wrapped around him, we continued our dance of love. The feel was euphoric, I felt a connection to him, yes, he was my soul mate. A lathe of his tongue on my breast and an increase in our pace and I broke around him, two more thrusts and I felt his muscles inside me as he released. My spasms pulling him in toward my center, his seed coating my cervix, I saw colors as the wave of love washed through me. As our movements slowed and our hearts and breathing slowed, he lowered his body over mine, his elbows on either side of my head to support his weight we looked into each other's eyes.

"I love you forever Babe, I feel complete with you"

"You touched my soul, Carlos, I've never felt like that with anyone else, Te amo"

As he turned over onto his back I followed wrapping myself around him, as he wrapped himself around me, we completed each other.

Chapter 36

It was late when I woke, looking at my Babe I could see she was still asleep but seemed restless. I carefully moved myself and slid slowly from the bed to go into the bathroom. When I'd finished showering she was laid as I'd left her, I placed my pillow in front of her and pulled up the sheet to cover her, how I loved her more each minute, how beautiful she was with her hair, her wild curls, spread around her face. A light touch of my mouth on her lips and she moved to grip onto the pillow, then settled again. She must be tired, we'd woken numerous times to seek each others touch and make love during the night. I'd never had that experience before, I enjoyed sex don't get me wrong, but what we shared was way beyond that, it connected us in ways I never thought possible, never dreamt of. I dressed then went up on deck to find Jack at the wheel.

"Carlos, good morning, how's that beautiful lady of yours?"

"Sleeping, I'll ask Sofia for some breakfast when Steph wakes up"

As I finished my sentence I caught sight of Steph coming onto the deck below me. I smiled at her and moved down to greet her. As I approached I was instantly concerned at how she looked, she was pale and her eyes were dull.

"Babe, are you feeling all right?"

"No not really, I feel really queasy and a bit dizzy"

"Come and sit down, maybe you're still tired or the movement of the boat is making you feel sea sick?"

"Maybe"

I made sure she was sat with her feet up, a blanket round her and fetched a bottle of water, by that time she was fast asleep.

"Jack maybe we should head back, Steph really isn't feeling well?"

"No problem, I'll head for the bay in front of the cottages, then we can use the tender to take you and your lass ashore"

An hour later we were anchored up and I helped Steph down into the boat, sitting her on my knee, she'd only just woke up and was still a bit unsteady on her feet. As we came to shore Kade was there stood in the shallow water and without a word he simply lifted Steph from me and proceeded to carry her up the beach.

"Kade I can walk you know"

"Sure you could, but where would the fun be if I let you do that"

And that was the voice of my Babe, sounding better. We spent the afternoon on the terrace, reading and both of us writing emails, Steph was catching up with her friends and sending a photo of her ring. We'd both spoken to my parents and Steph spoke with her father, we'd agreed that there was no need to keep our engagement a secret. With Santos with us it wouldn't stay quiet for long anyway. A lazy afternoon followed by a walk along the beach was finished off with a large celebration dinner in the main house. I was pleased that Steph looked better and she did eat, though not as much as usual. Conversation was rowdy and overall we had a relaxing evening.


	19. Chapter 37 & 38

Chapter 37

As I became aware of being awake, I also became aware of the nauseous feeling I'd had since yesterday, I feigned sleep trying to will my stomach to calm down. Was it too much sun? Perhaps the rich foods we'd eaten on the yacht? Dehydration or some stomach bug I'd picked up? Whatever it was I couldn't act as normal for much longer, I needed to talk with Angel, maybe she had some medicine I could take. I felt Carlos move stealthily from the bed, kiss my forehead and the sound of the door as he exited. Quickly I ran into the bathroom and with my head over the toilet was violently sick. As the dry heaving settled I turned on my knees and started to fill the tub with hot water, throwing in some bath salts that smelled of vanilla. I was still soaking in the tub when Carlos reappeared in the bathroom. Hopefully the smell of my sick had been drowned out by the vanilla and I knew my cheeks were flushed from the heat of the water, I did feel a little better. He bent over me and kissed my head, stroking a hand down my cheek.

"How are you feeling this morning?"

"Better than I was"

Which wasn't a lie. He went into the shower and I heard the sound of water spraying against the glass surround. Oh hell, my hormones were going into hyper drive, certainly not dampened by my feeling ill. I stood from the bath and carefully stepped out and opened the glass door, reaching in to run my hands down his back, he stilled and turned wearing a huge grin on his face and sporting a huge erection.

"Someone told me you were good in the shower"

"Babe I'm good anywhere with you"

As we left the bathroom wrapped in towels feeling very clean and very satiated I felt the need to expend some energy.

"I think I'm going to ask Tobi or Lester to work out with me in the gym"

"Sounds like a plan, Babe, just don't overdo things if you're still feeling a bit under the weather"

I spent an hour with Tobi on the mats, mainly going through ways to get out of holds, not really energetic but by the end I was feeling pretty tired. Angel was coming in as I left.

"Angel can you spare a few minutes this morning?"

"Sure Steph, give me an hour and I'll find you"

Returning to my room I re showered and dressed in shorts and a strappy top with a bikini underneath, then lay down in my thinking position with a pillow on my head.

Gentle kisses on my face brought me awake and I opened my eyes to beautiful brown eyes looking at me.

"Someone told me you were a woman who loved upside down kisses?"

"Maybe you'll have to try it to find out?"

"Maybe I will"

He kissed me gently, holding my head in his hands as I teased my fingers through his hair.

"Mmm, that felt just right"

"Come on sleepy head, Angel's next door waiting for you"

I tied my hair back into a ponytail and walked out to greet Angel.

"Why don't we go to my rooms and then we'll have a bit of peace and quiet?"

Angel's rooms were simple, but classy, almost bohemian with the rich colors that she'd used. We sat in a lounge with a couch stuffed with small cushions, lots of room and comfy enough to raise my legs under me.

"All right Steph, spill it"

"I'm fed up with feeling sick and tired all the time, I can't stomach big meals and food just doesn't taste as good"

"Any pain?"

"No, do you think I have a stomach bug, oh no, do you think there's a problem with my kidney?"

"No, lets do some basic tests first, then we can eliminate things from your panic list"

I moved the cushions out of the way and laid down on the couch, Angel had gone to wash her hands and get her medic bag.

"Blood pressure a bit low, but yours is on the low side as normal, heart rate good and strong, no tenderness in your abdomen, no temperature so no infection anywhere. When was your last period?"

"I don't have them"

"So what birth control are you using?"

"Three month injection, it's due in three weeks"

"So you are using other contraception aren't you?"

"Err, no, I'm covered"

"Well I think that maybe we need to run some blood tests. Any contraception is only 99% effective, add on to that the stress you've been under and the fact that you were on a cocktail of antibiotics after your operation, well"

"Angel I can't be"

"I tell you what, I'm friends with the medic over on Ronde Island, we can go over there and use the spa and pool, while she runs some tests. Come on Steph if you're not then we can take it off the list"

The next hour was like being in a dream, I just did as Angel told me. Tobi used one of the motor launches to take us over and I spent the time thinking through what Angel was suggesting. I couldn't be pregnant, what sort of mother would I be? I'm always getting into scrapes and trouble follows me. My mother was right, I'm not a good person, she tried to get me to be more domesticated and I couldn't do it, I could end up just like her. Oh god Carlos, he didn't do children, his life wasn't cut out to be a father. Would he just marry me and set me up in a nice house and pay for things, could I live with that? Would he hate me and never speak to me again? Would he expect me to get an abortion? By the time we stepped onto the jetty on Ronde I felt physically sick, even Tobi walked next to me, I think he thought I was going to pass out.

"Angel, is Steph OK to be going in the spa and pool, she's looking a bit green"

"She's fine, just needs to find her land legs. We'll see you here in two hours"

If the island was beautiful I didn't see it, and was totally unaware of the buildings we were walking through. It was when we were sat down in an office I suddenly became aware of the medical equipment on the shelves and a pretty woman smiling at me.

"I'm Doctor Nealey, so pleased to have a new face to talk to"

"Hello, I'm Steph"

"Okay Angel she looks ready to bolt, is she going to be all right?"

"Yeah Jo, I need you to do a pregnancy test, don't have much call for those on my island"

"No problem, I'll need to take some blood Steph"

She held my arm and pulled a band around it then prepared the needle and vials. Angel held my other hand as the needle was inserted and the vials filled with my blood.

"All done, I've taken some extra in case the test is negative and we need to do more tests, Angel said you haven't been feeling well?

"No, not really"

"Angel bring her back in an hour and a half, I've my own in house lab so I'll get it done straight away"

Angel had to pull me up from the chair and steer me out of the room, it wasn't until she pushed a drink into my hand I realized we were sat in lounge chairs next to a beautiful swimming pool.

"Steph you want something to eat?"

"Maybe just something light"

"You stay here and I'll go sort something out"

I actually enjoyed the food Angel brought; we had sandwiches, raw vegetables, salad and pretzels, followed by a banana split. I drank ginger ale soda, something I'd never tried before, and I found that I liked it. The time passed more quickly than I thought it would, probably because Angel talked non-stop. Before I knew it we were sat with doctor Nealey again, and she had a smile on her face as she held a piece of paper in her hand.

"Congratulations Steph, you are indeed pregnant"

I couldn't say anything; I got up and turned to her.

"Thank you for doing this so quickly"

Then I did what I do well, I bolted, I can run when I need to, and I needed to. I needed to feel I could run away from this, hide, and go into my favorite place, denial land. I briefly heard Angel shout my name but I weaved through corridors, in and out of doors until I hit an exit that brought me to the outside, then I continued to run. I don't know how far I ran, but my surroundings had changed, there were no longer buildings or paths. There were trees and long grass and the sound of birds in the air, I couldn't let the fear of not knowing where I was or where I was going deter me, keep running Stephanie, became my mantra. I hadn't even noticed that I had gone up a hill until I came to the other side and instead of running I tripped and fell onto the ground then rolled sideways, my speed increasing as the hill fell away. At some stage I must have lost consciousness because when I came to I was in a tangled mess and it was starting to get dark. I was covered in little cuts and no doubt would have bruises but nothing major hurt, and that's when it hit me, I could have killed my baby, my baby growing inside of me, my baby that was a part of me and Carlos. Oh god, Carlos, what had I done? I crawled my way into a sunken area between the gnarled roots of an ancient tree, curling up I silently wept until I fell into a sleep.

Chapter 38

I was on the computer catching up with work from Trenton, I'd already spoken with Juan and things were fine in Miami, Tank had sent me a report and apart from some meetings to schedule when I got back all was quiet. Kade burst into the room flinging the door back onto the wall, something was wrong.

"Mobilize, we need to get over to Ronde straight away, bird's coming in to pick us up"

I ran to the closet and donned cargos, cat boots and long sleeved T-shirt, then added two guns and two knives, and hightailed it out to the back of the building where a helicopter was just landing. Climbing on board I saw Jobe up front piloting with Santos beside him and Kade, Sam and Jobe.

"What the hell has happened?"

Kade looked over at Jobe, who shrugged his shoulders, obviously leaving it to Kade to fill me in.

"Steph bolted and now Angel and Tobi can't find her. They think she ran into the jungle area of the island, but it's getting dark so we need to find her"

"What the hell caused her to run?"

"I don't know, Angel won't tell me, but no one's after her, it's just not the best place to be at night"

What had caused Steph to run? I know she hadn't been feeling well, but together we'd been really good. I didn't feel that she was in danger, no awareness that she needed help. Santos came over the headphones.

"I'm gonna drop two of you off behind the hotel then Jobe and I will use the infra red scanner to see if we can pick up her heat source. There's no where to land in the interior so if we find something we'll send you the co ordinates, Sam can man the winch if we need it"

That made sense; Kade and I were the best at tracking so might be able to pick up her trail. Kade started to hand me some gear, Maglite, machetes, and an ear bud and throat mike. We each had a backpack with emergency medical supplies and ropes. Santos handed us GPS handsets as he opened the door and Kade and I jumped down onto the grass outside of the hotel. Tobi was waiting for us.

"We tracked her going into the wooded area, but it got too dark to follow it properly, I'm with you, Angel's staying here incase she turns up or someone calls to say they've seen her"

Tobi led us to the edge of the wooded area as the bird lifted off. I had to lock away my emotions; they'd get in the way of me being effective, of finding her. Instead I focused on her, only her as we followed a pathway into the woods. The going was slow as we were trying to track Stephs movements; fortunately she'd crashed through the undergrowth leaving broken branches and flattened grass. She must have moved fast because we'd already covered a good few miles, Santos had scanned the area ahead and found nothing; they were circling and repeating their search then going way ahead of us. The terrain was getting steadily worse, trees closer together so no grass to leave a trail on and the branches of the trees were higher so non broken. We reached the ridge of a small hill and that's when I felt her close by.

"She's nearby Kade, I think she went down the hill, anything from Santos?"

"Negative, but if she's protected by trees the infra re scanner may not pick anything up, here look, there's breakage at the edge of that root system, let's follow it down"

We were finding more damage to the ground, had she fallen and rolled, yes there was an area smoothed out. I stopped and listened and forced my mind to find her.  
"Ranger we got a very weak heat source about 60 foot ahead of you, not full size so could be a mammal, but it's not moving"

"Roger Santos, on our way"

As we came to the area that Santos mentioned the trees appeared old, lots of root systems across the ground, then I saw her, or at least her hand, trailing over one of the roots. I moved forward to assess the damage, and there she was, curled up inside the base of the tree, protected by the tree.

""Found her, I need to assess her condition"

I knelt beside her and touched her wrist, strong steady heartbeat, and warm skin. I moved my hand to her face and traced her cheek with my fingertips, if I didn't know better I'd say she was asleep. Kade came behind me bending down to look at her.

"What's your prognosis?"

"Asleep? I'm going to wake her and see if she has any injuries"

I gently put my hand to her head and stroked her hair talking to her.

"Babe, you need to wake up, come on babe, I need to see your beautiful blue eyes"

She moaned as her head turned and her eyes fluttered open, confusion then terror in her face.

"Babe, everything's fine, I'm here for you, and you're safe querida"

"Carlos, oh god, what have I done?"

"Nothing, but I need to know if you're hurt"

She moved her arms and made to get up, I lifted her up in my arms, holding her to me, and I breathed her in savoring her smell and feel.

"I need to hold you, to be sure you're all right"

"I'm sorry Carlos, I panicked and couldn't stop, then I got lost and it was dark. Am I the reason you're all here?"

Tears started to stream down her face as she realized the lengths we'd had to go through to find her.

"Come on we need to get out of here, can you walk?"

"Yes, I can walk"

I looked her over as she began to walk with Kade's arm around her waist, she had a lot of small cuts, probably from the branches that caught her, and no doubt she'd have bruises from the fall down the hill. Otherwise she seemed to be fine. Tobi led the way and I caught up and held her waist on her other side. It was hard going retracing our steps, after an hour Steph was dead on her feet, I lifted her into my arms and felt her snuggle in to my chest, kissing her hair I noticed she was fast asleep, but not a deep sleep, she was obviously agitated, her face wasn't relaxed and she was whimpering. Each of us took turns to carry her and she never woke up, even when we all loaded back into the helicopter to return us home. We were all quiet and periodically someone would watch her, Angel hadn't said anything that might throw a light on why Steph had run. I carried her into our bedroom, removed her clothes and put a T-shirt of mine on her along with some sleep shorts. Leaving her tucked up in bed I took a fast shower and within five minutes was laid next to her, my arms locked around her. My sleep was chaotic with dreams, of her walking away from me or simply fading in front of my eyes, each time I woke to make sure she was still there. As the sun rose I couldn't sleep any more and simply watched her. Not long after she started moving and slowly her eyes opened, she looked at me with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, please don't hate me, please don't send me away, shit I need to go to the bathroom"

She literally ran across the room and I heard her reason for the fast exit from bed, she was being sick. I followed behind her and rinsing a cloth under the cold water placed it on the back of her neck.

"Babe, you need anything?"

She shook her head, repeating what she'd said before.

"I'm sorry, please don't hate me, please don't send me away"

That's when it hit me, the reason she'd been so ill and her running away and now what she was saying. I lifted her onto my knee and sat on the floor.

"Babe, I love you and will do forever, I think you have something to share with me, don't you?"

She closed her eyes and turned from me.

"Un bebe hermoso, she will be beautiful like her mother, and I love her already"

Then I lifted the T-shirt she was wearing and kissed her skin below her tummy button.

"You have to be good for your mama, she's not feeling so well. Babe, why would you think those things? I can't think of anything more precious than you having my child, seeing you grow round with her and feeling her move inside you"

"I didn't think you'd wanted any children?"

"I never really thought about it, but now, wow"

"But what if I'm like my mother, what if I'm no good?"

"Babe you are nothing like your mother, you are one of the most loving, caring people I know"

"But I won't know what to do"

"Babe we'll learn together, we'll have Ella and Angel, Mary Lou and don't forget all the uncles she'll have"

"I panicked, you I said you didn't want a family, and I know I didn't, but now I know I have a piece of you growing inside, I already love it"

"So do I, Babe promise me you'll talk to me first please?"

"I will"

"Let' get married"

"You already asked me and I said yes"

"I know but lets do it now, I want to go to appointments as your husband, for you and my children to have my name, Stephanie Manoso"

"I like the sound of that"

"Then lets get the gang into action and make it happen, here on the beach, unless you want a big church affair with everyone there?"

"No, been there, done that. I'd love to marry you on the beach at sunset with our friends, maybe we can have a party when we get home to let people know"

"Let's go break the news to the others, I'm sure Kade and Angel will love it, Babe everything will be all right, we're together and together we are stronger"

I took my time to kiss her, her nose, her lips and chin, then lifted up her T-shirt and kissed her stomach. I never imagined having a child so soon, maybe it was something we would have got around to talking about, but to be honest I felt as if I'd been given a miracle, the idea of a child lit up my face and my heart. I'd have to relook at our safety once back in Trenton and hopefully Steph would be protective enough of our child to make some adjustments to her, no, our lives.

After dressing we went to the main house, obviously Angel knew Stephs secret but when she saw my face she broke into a smile and hugged us both. Kade gave me a funny look.

"Double celebration Kade, but first you two have a special assignment to plan for"

"And what the hell is that?"

"Steph and I want to get married here, as soon as possible"

Angel whooped and Kade grinned.

"About time you got your head outta your ass"

Angel immediately took Steph out of the room, no doubt to start planning; Kade was just sat grinning at me.

"So what else?"

"Sorry?"  
"You said a double celebration"

"Steph's pregnant, that's why she ran yesterday, she panicked, thought I wouldn't like the idea"

"Hell man, I've never seen you look so happy, there was a time you swore you'd never settle down. But even I'd settle down with that woman"

"Kade!"

"Keep your head on Ranger, she's one in a million and you know it, you lucky bastard"

"I know, I never felt like I deserved someone like her"

"Come on, let's get some organizing done, before I start to cry"

Organizing for a wedding was actually easier than I thought it would be, Kade had very good contacts with the resort on Ronde and they specialized in weddings, so after a phone call their organizer took over. A lady called Danielle was going to be in charge of everything from flowers to food and most importantly the official ceremony. She sent over by email a full outline of a schedule and would send us options for us to choose from later. With that done I needed to find rings and appropriate clothing. As if sensing this Angel called.

"Ranger we need to go over to the main land and acquire some dresses, thought we'd go in the morning, you need to come?"

"Yes Angel, that's a good idea"  
"Okay I'll sort with the guys our transport and we'll leave here at 9am, I'll let Steph know"

We all ate together in Kade's house, seeing as it was the largest. He hadn't said anything to anyone else and neither had I. As we sat down Santos was the one who seemed to notice that there was a different feel in the air.

"All right, what the hell is going on, because I can definitely sense that something's going down"

I looked at Steph as she looked at me and I gave her a nod to continue, she ceremonially tapped her knife on her glass, and then stood up beside me with her arm across my shoulder. I instinctively pulled her into my side.

"Carlos and I would like you to join us on Friday at our wedding celebration"

"Beautiful it will be a pleasure"

Kade stood up with glass in hand.

"I'm sure I speak for all us here, but, well, congratulations to you both"

There were "Hoorays" from the table and each of the men came up to Steph to give her a hug and kiss on the cheek, obviously Santos pushed his luck but this time Tobi managed to hit him on the back of the head. Steph was smiling so much she was almost in tears. After dessert and coffee we arranged the trip for the morning and I excused us for the evening. I decided to take a different route via the beach to get back to our cottage.

"Babe, how are you feeling?"

"Much better, Angel's given me some tips to try and ward off some of the sickness, but she said the tiredness was something I'd have to put up with, just to rest more often"

"Tell me what you need and I'll help out, OK?"

I turned her into my arms and drew her tight to my chest, holding her head with my cheek against hers.

"Babe, you've made me the happiest man on Earth, I couldn't imagine you not being next to me, mi alma gemela, my soul mate"

"Te amo Carlos, I feel so happy at this moment"

"Come on, if we have an early morning then we need to get some sleep"


	20. Chapter 39 & 40

Chapter 39

Urgh, I felt nauseous again, I lay very still trying to quell the feeling. I felt Carlos get up from the bed and the door close, not two minutes later and he re appeared carrying a tray. I slowly sat part way up and saw that he was holding a cup for me and had put some crackers by my side.

"What is this?"

"Ginger tea and crackers, Angel said they could help you with the sickness, she also said not to get up too quickly"

"Thank you"

"De nada"

I sipped the hot tea, not too bad really and nibbled on a cracker, after ten minutes and four crackers later I did actually feel a little better. Carlos had his two-minute shower and came out to dress, I watched as he toweled himself dry, then turned away when he caught me looking.

"See something you like, Babe?"

"Smartass"

I slowly got out of the bed and sauntered across the room, as I came level with him I playfully smacked his behind then ran into the bathroom. I heard him laugh as I closed the door, yes I felt better this morning. I dressed in a sundress and sandals for todays outing and went out onto to the terrace where Carlos was eating breakfast.

"You seem to be in a bright mood this morning, querida?"

"Yeah, the tea and crackers definitely helped"

"I'm glad, I'm sorry you have to suffer that"

"S'okay"

"I've ask Sofia to pack some light snacks and ginger soda for you on the plane, will you be okay walking round the town?"

"I'll be fine, we'll be in cars mainly so there shouldn't be a problem"

I sat down on his lap and picked up a banana, slowly pulling the skin down.

"Carlos, would you wear a wedding ring?"

"For you, anything"

I hesitated, how do I ask this?'

"Babe?"

"Could we look for wedding bands together today?"

"That was what I wanted to ask you, so yes we'll look them for today"

With that settled in my head we walked out of the front door, collecting my bag, and Carlos collecting a thin shirt, I think the shirt must have been to conceal his gun because all the other men were dressed the same.

"Is it safe in Caracas?"

"As much as any city Bonita, but we always go prepared, just stay close to one of the guys, OK?"

The flight to Caracas was less than an hour in the jet Kade had, it still amazed me that he had so many extravagant modes of transport and that Jobe was piloting along with Lester, these guys had so many skills. Once we landed there were three Black SUVs waiting where we stopped, men got out and opened each of the doors for us. Angel and I were dress shopping first and had Lester and Tobi with us, Carlos and Kade were looking for suits and Jobe and Sam were going? Not sure what they were up to. We were going to meet up at a restaurant for lunch, and then Carlos and I would be looking for our rings.

As soon as we left the airport the guys went into body guard mode, there was no bantering or joking, constantly looking around, to be honest it made me feel more nervous. The dress shop that Angel had spoken with didn't really look much from the outside but oh my, once inside there were some beautiful dresses, and not one flouncy dress in site. I was almost lost for choice, almost. When I saw the dress I knew it was the one. It had simplicity to it, with a deep V-neck that plunged down to the waist, both at the front and the back, and then clung to my hips kicking out at the knees. It was a cream color embellished down the neckline to the waist. There were some matching flat sandals; I had to remember we were getting married on the beach, and a simple matching hair comb with the same embellishment as the dress.

"Steph that is beautiful, and is so you"

"Thanks Angel, you don't think it's a bit risqué?"

"No, it's perfect. Does it have a fitted bra?"

"Yeah, there are cups inside and would you believe there's matching briefs and garter?"

"It looks as if it were made for you, it's even the right length, I could never get away with that"  
"Well you need to look for a dress yourself, 'cos girl you are going to be my maid of honor"

I removed the dress and the assistant packed everything into a white box, that's when I panicked. Of Angel noticed.

"Steph what's wrong?"

"I don't have any currency to pay, I don't know how much it is"  
"Oh, is that all, the shop will send the bill to the island, it's all sorted"

That wasn't exactly how I envisioned this, and now that I thought about it,I didn't really have that much money to my name. I hadn't caught a skip in weeks.

"Steph you've gone pale, do you need to sit down?"

"Oh Angel, I can't get this, I can't afford it"

"Nonsense, the reward money from those bikers and Homeland came in today, Kade just needs to sort it out, and there's enough for you to buy this"

I didn't know anything about any reward money, was she telling me the truth? I picked up my phone and pressed 1.

"Yo"

"Yo yourself, Carlos was there reward money from when those bikers were captured?"

"Let me check with Kade. Yes, came in this morning, there a problem Babe?"

"Err, no. We're heading for lunch now, so see you soon"

I closed up the phone still not sure, well, I wanted that dress so I smiled at the assistant and took my box.

We met the guys for lunch, the restaurant was outdoors but with lots of shade, a good job because as soon as I curled up against Carlos I was asleep. I felt kisses on my cheeks and across my lips and smiled, what a way to be woken up.

"Babe, you need to eat and drink something before we leave, what do you fancy?"

I smiled up at him; yeah he knew exactly what I fancied. He laughed then nuzzled my neck.

"Later"

After a light lunch we swapped cars, I was travelling with Carlos and Kade, but we didn't go to what I would call a conventional jewelry shop, it looked like some ones mansion. I looked toward Kade for an answer.

"This gentleman has the finest selection of jewelry in the city, you have to book an appointment to see him"

We were shown into a room that was more like a formal parlor, thick carpets and upholstered chairs. Carlos spoke in Spanish to an older looking man who went out of the door and reappeared carrying a velvet tray, On the tray were a selection of his and hers wedding bands. To be honest all of them looked beautiful, but I wanted Carlos to choose.

"You choose, please Carlos"

He nodded and picked up two of the rings, holding one against my finger.

"Take off your engagement ring and try this"

The ring was the same white gold as my ring and had a small diamond and two leaves engraved into the band. It matched my engagement ring perfectly, and it fit! He then showed me the other ring for himself, it looked to be made of platinum and had a single black diamond embedded into the band with two leaves engraved on either side.

"Perfect, Babe do you like them?"

"Yes, They're beautiful and elegant and because the stone is embedded it won't get caught on anything"

He spoke to the gentleman who disappeared to return with the rings now in a blue box. That seemed to be our shopping done so we then returned to the airport to fly home. The rest of the week passed quickly, I must admit I felt relaxed having a wedding planner doing all of the hard work, all Carlos and I had to do was make a choice from the options she put into an email. I was coping better with the morning sickness, mainly due to Carlos being so attentive, and taking a nap in the afternoon helped stave off the tiredness. Friday morning came and with it a beautiful blue sky. Angel had organized for us to have a massage, body scrub followed by hair and make up. This all happened in her rooms.

"I'm not sure I should even be talking to you Angel"

"Why?"

"You made me sleep here in your cottage and not with Carlos"

"Didn't I tell you, I'm a traditionalist, and anyhow it's bad luck to see the groom before the wedding"

I rolled my eyes at that one, even Carlos was annoyed at the way we'd been separated. Sophia helped me to get into my dress; she argued that without help I'd spoil my makeup or hair. She obviously didn't know how a Jersey girl could operate. As the time approached to leave the cottage I was surprised with myself, I thought I would be full of nerves but I wasn't, I felt calm and incredibly happy. This was the right man for me. Lester and Tobi were walking out with me and escorting me down to the beach toward the canopy. Angel went first and we followed, to be honest I didn't really notice my surroundings, my eyes were fixed on the man under the canopy, he looked so handsome and delicious, dare I say I had tears of joy in my eyes. He was wearing a black linen suit with a cream shirt the same color as my dress, a blue tie that matched Angels dress. In fact all the men were in suits, shirts and ties, and all of them looked incredible. Our eyes locked from the moment I walked out and within the black depth of his eyes I saw so much love and emotion. As I stood opposite him to say my vows and for him to say his, my heart swelled inside of me, god how I loved this man, he was my everything. Our first kiss as husband and wife was full of love, and passion, I could have stayed forever in that one spot, but the cheers and whistles had my cheeks warm up and we turned to face the rest of the guests. There was someone taking photographs, we'd decided that when we had our party back home we'd give each guest one. It was when I really looked out over the people sat on the chairs that I suddenly noticed my Grandma sat with Tank and Bobby. I looked at Carlos, because I knew he'd arranged that for me.

"Thank you"

Chapter 40

We had been married for a week, enjoying each other's company, and occasionally making an appearance with the others in our group. Steph was surprised when we turned around after the ceremony to see Tank stood with her Grandmother, Edna was in tears and very emotional, I'd arranged for Tank to bring her, along with Bobby, to share our happy day. Frank, Stephs father had been invited but he decided that the day was for Steph to enjoy and not to be reminded of the events that had happened in Trenton, he'd sent her a letter, explaining, wishing us a memorable day and that he would catch up with her when she returned. Today was the day for our return and I don't think anyone wanted to leave. The jet was flying in to Mercer airport to drop off Steph and myself, Bobby, Tank, Santos and Edna before Kade and Angel headed back to the west coast. I had to admit that Edna looked more frail than I remembered, she'd been very quiet for her stay with us, I suppose all that had happened were taking their toll on her, even Tank admitted she had never once attempted to grope him. Steph seemed to be managing her morning sickness but I knew we'd need to look at making an appointment with a doctor when we got back. We'd agreed to keep the pregnancy quiet until people got used to the idea that we were married. There would be a busy few weeks ahead of us, I needed to catch up and get back into business mode and Steph wanted to catch up with friends. She'd told me that she didn't want to go back to bounty hunting, which suited me just fine, I'd already discussed with Tank, Santos and Lester about her working at Rangeman. Whilst her ability to do searches was exceptional we all knew that it would drive her mad, so at some stage she needed to decide what she would be comfortable with. Too soon we arrived back at Rangeman, back to a normalcy I hoped.

"Babe, have you thought which doctor you'd prefer to see?"

"Not really, only that I don't want to see anyone in Trenton"

"Do you want me to arrange one in Newark?"

"Please"

"I'll do that today, what are your plans?"

"I'll spend the morning doing searches, have a sleep, then I'm going over to see Grandma. I'll be back by 5. What about you?"

"I've got two new clients this morning, then I have to get back to sorting through the annual reviews"

"If you need help ask, OK?"

"I'll meet you up here for lunch"

With that I left Steph to go down to five. The floor was quiet when I got there, asking at the monitors I was told all was quiet so letting reception know the clients I was expecting I went to my office to start the day. I knew the minute Steph came onto the floor, I could feel her near but for some reason the noise level always seemed to rise, she definitely brought lightness to the men at work. At the moment we seemed to have a good crew and everyone seemed to be getting on well. At 12 having secured the clients as new business I went up to seven. Steph had beaten me there because she was fast asleep on the couch, a half eaten sandwich in front of her. I didn't want to wake her so grabbed something from the fridge and left a note next to her; I'd see her when she got back this afternoon. Back down in my office I researched for a good doctor and made an appointment, in three days time. At 2pm I felt Steph coming closer, she lightly knocked and popped her head round the door.

"Babe, you don't need to knock"

"Well you might be in a meeting"

"So? You know I'd rather see you instead"

She walked over and as I pushed my chair away from the desk she sat on my knee. I bent down and kissed her stomach.

"Hola mi pequeña"

"I'm just leaving to go see Grandma, I'm a bit worried about her"

"I noticed as well, give her time, maybe she'll bounce back"

"Maybe"

"Babe I've made an appointment for a doctor in Newark, Wednesday at 4pm"

"Thank you"

She turned and kissed me, her hands in my hair, turning to deepen the kiss sucking my lower lip into her mouth, then using her tongue to tease my lips apart. God what this woman could do to me, I felt myself getting hard beneath her and I could feel her squirming against my lap.

"Babe, if you stay any longer you won't be seeing the outside of this office"

She laughed at me.

"The one good thing about being pregnant are the pregnancy hormones, I think they're almost as good as when I stop sugar"

"Babe you have stopped sugar"

"See, what did I tell you"

"Go woman"

She laughed, I was so glad to see the sparkle back in her eyes.

I'd started on the annual reviews and was on to the second one when my office phone rang, looking I saw it was reception.

"Yo"

"Boss, Vince here, there's a Don Matthews here to see you and he says it's really important"

"Escort him up to my office, then wait outside"

All my men knew if that order were given then I wanted backup at the door. Don came into the office, he looked gaunt and almost seemed to have aged.

"Don, why don't you sit down?"

He didn't, which had me concerned

"Ranger, I am so sorry for being such a prick, for not realizing what was going on"

"Don, I spoke with the Director and he said you'd been under a lot of stress, plus that woman could really twist and manipulate the truth, you had no idea what she intended"

"I know that now, I've been seeing a doctor whose been helping me, trying to sort out what's going on in my head. I should have left like you and given everything a clean break, I don't know why but I just felt that I still had so much to offer"

"Don, I appreciate you saying that, but what are you doing here?"  
"Well the doctor told me one way of trying to find myself was to confront things"

"And?"

"I went to see Elspeth, in prison"

"Did that help?"

"No, because you need to know"

"Know what?"

"It wasn't just her, there was someone else involved in all of it, someone in the background"

Shit, I really thought we'd finished with all that.

"Don, did she say who?"

"No, she just kept saying that she was betrayed by her father because of him"

Hickman had said something similar when we spoke to him, but how did this affect us?

"Ranger she said he's real angry"

"Don will you please just tell me what's going on"

"She said that he's going to get back at you and, and Stephanie"

I was out the office in a flash leaving Don stood there, in the monitor room I pushed Hal to one side.

"Where are Stephs trackers?"

"At her old apartment, Sir"

"Whose with her?"

"Err, Ram"

Thank god Steph hadn't argued over having someone with her.

"Call Ram, now"

Hal called, first the car, then his phone.

"No response"

I pulled my phone from my pocket and hit 1"

Come on Babe, answer your phone"

When there was no answer I hit the alert button for Steph, this sent an alert out to all Rangeman that she was in danger and anyone near her position would get to her immediately.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

"Ranger, I'm 2 minutes out, what's the situation?"

"Santos, I'm not sure but there could be someone after her"

"Ah shit, I'll keep the speaker open"

I headed for the stairs still listening to the phone, Tank joined me in the garage and he drove as we headed for Stephs old apartment. Sounds from the phone put Santos as closing his car door.

"Ram is down, unconscious, I'm going up"

Tank was speeding now and we were almost there pulling into the car park at the back of the building. I quickly called for EMTs for Ram, and for Bobby to get here a.s.a.p.

"Ranger, the doors wide open, going in, lobby clear, kitchen clear, lounge clear. Shit I've found Edna Mazur lying on the bed, pulse steady. I've called EMTs for her. Ranger there's no sign of Steph"

My heart gave a punch and I had to concentrate to breath, Tank came behind me and with a hand on my arm pulled me through the door into the stairwell. Santos was still inside the apartment when we arrived at the door.

"Santos, you find anything?"

"Nothing, her coats here and so is her bag, she got any other trackers on?"

"She should have a panic button on her"

"Yeah well let's hope he doesn't have a zapper like that woman had"

I moved into the bedroom to take a look at Edna, she really was out for the count; I quickly looked at her arms and neck for any puncture marks from needles, but found nothing.

"Tank, have a look at anything they may have drunk"

"On it Boss"

The EMTs arrived and were taking vital signs on Edna; Bobby was with Ram on their way to the hospital. It wasn't long before they declared they were taking Edna in to the hospital.

"Tank, you find anything?"

"Only bottles of water in the trash"

"Take them and get them checked out for any drugs, and Tank can we have someone at the hospital for when Edna wakes up"

"I'll go"

"Thanks Santos"

Now what? I went around the building knocking on doors, but half the residents were out or had been too busy watching TV to notice anything. Surely someone would see a man dragging Steph out of here? I headed down to talk to Dillon in the basement. Not in, great. When I arrived back upstairs it felt that most of my men were here. Binkie turned to me.

"Boss got a team on the forensics, finger printing and searching"

"Cal"

"Yes Boss"

"Head to Rangeman and get all the files from the Elspeth Langham case and put them out in the war room. Tank head back with him and detain Don Matthews there. Hector take a partner and hit he streets, I'm heading back to Rangeman"

I thought we'd finished with this, Steph always said there was another key player, but because everything seemed to tie together with all the men and woman captured I never gave it a second thought. What the hell was the game now? Where was my Babe, and Christ, the baby! I screeched into the garage, leaving the car door open and running up the stairs to my office. Tank was just inside the door with Don pacing the room.

"Is she all right?"

"No Don, I can't find her, who Don, who was Elspeth talking about?"

"I don't know, she just said that she was betrayed by her father"

"Well her father would be dead by now, who else could it be?"

"Ranger who was her father?"

I looked at Tank, he knew what I was thinking, he'd known Don back in the days and then he was dam good at his job. Tank gave me a nod and I had to agree.

"Come on Don, time to redeem yourself, you can help"

He seemed to light up at that, so I took him into the war room where Cal was putting out the files. I knew the content of these files backwards; I'd read them enough times.

"Cal the letter that Thomas Grossman wrote?"  
"Got it"

He handed me the letter and I skimmed looking for a name.

"Károly Riamann, he was Elspeth's father, and she came here under the name of Erzsébet Lange. He worked security to start with then joined the gendarmerie"

"Cal can you put some teams together and recon the addresses Steph had you search when I went missing, add onto that the warehouse and the hotel where she was taken"

"Don, ideas?"

"What if her father remarried?"  
"Possible, but I know Steph didn't find anything under his name"

"So he could have changed his name to protect himself against recrimination or charges once the war ended there?"

"Don, it could be anything, plus we're looking for a son or even a daughter"

"So the offspring of this Károly Riamann would be younger than Elspeth, maybe born after Hungary became more stable"

"Go on, but this person could be American or Hungarian"

"So let's start to narrow it down, maybe after the Hungarian revolution in 1956, but lots of people fled as refugees, hell if I remember my history nearly 200,000, and 60,000 ended up here in America"

"Dom, you do what you do well, find his son or daughter"

I couldn't compute what he was saying because I couldn't see a way through, too many ifs and buts; I needed hard information to work with. We were now 6 hours since Steph had gone missing, surely we could catch a break? My phone went off and I saw it was Santos, I was praying now that maybe Edna knew something.

"Talk"

"Edna came round about an hour ago but the dam doctors wouldn't let me near her, Bobby put on the pressure 'cos Ram's awake as well, he had a dart mark in his neck. I taped our conversation, as I know she can go back and forth a bit, so you should have it now. I'll bring Ram back with me and leave Bobby here at the hospital, the lab here's trying to pin down what drug was used in her drink"

I disconnected the call and brought up the audio file Santos had sent. I heard Santos pushing her gently for answers.

"Edna, you remember me?"

"Your one of those hot fellas that works with Steph"

"Spot on Edna. Edna this is important, did Steph come see you this afternoon?"

"Well she was supposed to but I can't remember seeing her"

"What do you remember Edna?"

"Well I was getting ready for her coming, I'd baked a cake you see, I know she hasn't been eating a lot of cake, but I thought she deserved some. Then I put the kettle on ready to make a cup of coffee when she got here. Where am I?"

"I found you asleep in bed Edna, I got worried so they're checking you out at the hospital"

"Really? I don't remember going to bed"

"So Edna you put the kettle on for when Steph arrived, what then?"

"Well Ethel phoned to ask me to go to the viewing tonight, old man Golanci died last week, such a shame, I was gonna see if he was available to take me to bingo and then he goes and dies, you know . . ."

"Edna, after Ethel finished talking to you, what happened?"

"Well there was a knock on the door, I thought it was Steph but this nice young man was stood there, he said he'd arranged to meet Steph with me, now I thought it was strange, but then he said it was all last minute and he wanted to talk to us about that dam jewelry, that's all anyone's interested in"

"Edna, what did he look like?"

"Young, well maybe not as young you but younger than me, maybe fifty or sixty, hard to tell these days, but he was polite, offered to make me a coffee while we waited on Steph, couldn't make coffee though, had to add more sugar, sure tasted funny"

"Edna what else do you remember about him?"

"Why?"  
"We can't find Steph Edna, and maybe he took her"

"No I don't believe that, he was a proper gentleman, spoke real posh, and had on an expensive suit"


	21. Chapter 41, 42 & Epilogue

Chapter 41

I couldn't help it, I was so tired, and I could be stood up and slept. This jerk had locked me into a bedroom and left me. I'd tried all the doors, windows and looked for anything to help me get out, but there was nothing, the furniture was solid wood so I couldn't break it, there were bars on the window with shutters pulled closed outside and the only door was locked. There was a bed though and a bathroom, I used the bathroom and then with sheer exhaustion creeping through me I lay down in my thinking position, pillow over my head. I hoped Grandma was all right; she'd been so still laid on the bed, I nearly had a panic attack thinking she'd died, then that man had come in behind me with a knife. Yeah I knew enough to be able to disarm him, problem was he said if I tried anything his friend who was stood behind the door would finish Grandma off. What the hell was I supposed to do? So I went with him, all quiet like he asked, I couldn't think of any way to let Carlos know what had happened, I knew they'd somehow got to Ram, he was slouched over the wheel of his car, I hope he's okay. The man had blindfolded me once in the car, though he hadn't hurt me, I worked out that I was maybe forty minutes outside of Trenton, but somewhere really quiet. I'm sure the last section we travelled on was a gravel drive, so maybe a house in the country. God Carlos must be frantic by now. When I woke up I realized there was a cover over me, though I was still in my thinking position, I calmed myself and focused, just like Tobi had taught to do, yes, there was someone in the room watching me. I heard him move.

"Miss Plum or is it Mrs. Manoso?"

I decided I wasn't going to answer him, let him fill in the silence.

"I know you're awake, so you need to listen very carefully, then maybe, if I think you're telling me the truth I'll let you go"

Yeah right, like that was going to happen.

"You know something and have something that I need"

Really, heard that one before.

"All right I'll get to the point. A letter that has names on it from a dead man, Thomas Grossman, a series of documents left in an old safe in a bank and a priceless set of jewelry. Those are what I want"

Now what was so important about that letter and the names? I can see the attraction of the jewelry, worth millions, I think. And how did he expect me to get them?

"Shall we have this conversation, or are you going to ignore me?"

I suddenly felt the feeling of sickness come over me, oh no, I needed to throw up; I remembered where the bathroom was and rolled over to try to make a run for it. Unfortunately that man decided to try and stop me, well what can I say, he should have got out of the way, because two seconds later and I had thrown up right down his nice clean jacket, shirt and trousers, and yeah probably his shoes. Hey, I felt better and there was nothing on me. From the bit of light in the room I could tell he was, to say the least, shocked, then from his gruff response, disgusted. All right Stephanie, you have the advantage here, go for him. So that is exactly what I did, I used my fists on his face and head, then swung my body raising my leg to kick him in the stomach. He fell to the ground with a series of groans, I must admit I lost it a bit, how dare he just snatch me, how dare he hurt my Grandmother and how dare he cause Carlos to worry. By the time I slowed down he was out cold. I rifled through his pockets and found a gun and the keys to the door. Now what, if there was someone else in the house I didn't want them to know I'd knocked that man out. I snatched the sheets from the bed and started to wrap him up, making sure a bunch of material was in his mouth, once done I dragged him across the floor into the bathroom and quietly shut the door, with him inside. Now to get out of here, with the key in the lock I listened and focused, I couldn't sense anyone, so carefully unlocked the door and opened it by just a crack, enough to see through. All clear, so I opened the door and went out into a hallway, then carefully locked the door behind me. It seemed like a big house with lots of doors, but there was a stairway down to the lower floor. Keeping to the wall I snuck my way down, no other sounds came to me and I could see the front door ahead of me. Problem was if that was locked I could be trapped and that just wasn't going to happen, so instead I veered to the left into what must have been a dining room. There was talking now, only faint coming through a door, maybe a kitchen? So I headed in the other direction and came into a large sunroom, with big glass doors. The light was brighter here, the moon just peeking through the clouds, but enough to illuminate the bolts needed to open the door. OK, if the house was alarmed this would set them off so I needed to quickly open the doors and run like hell. I peered through the glass to decide where I needed to run and then counting down from three I dropped the bolt, opened the door and ran like hell toward the trees. Yeah you guessed, the alarm went off, wouldn't it would be sweet if Rangeman monitored it!

Chapter 42

I was still sat in the war room with machines humming and men working. The mood had become somber as one by one the addresses we'd looked at came back negative. Don was still busy with searches, but to be honest it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I was skimming through the file on Ben Grossman when a thought suddenly hit me, he'd said a man had visited his house and told him he had to scare or hurt Steph, we'd all just assumed the man was Langley, but what if the man was this last person, the son? I walked behind Don.

"Don it's a son, maybe fifty to sixty, lots of money, position of power"

"Cal go see Ben Grossman and take Daniel, get him to give Daniel a description of the man who visited him so Daniel can do an artist impression for us"

I looked up when Vince came in to speak with Tank, concerned he had bad news, Tank met my eye.

"No, nothing on Steph, the alarm just went off at that Senators house and he's a high profile client so I'll need to go"

"Who's that?"

"Senator Stephen Michaels"

Stephen Michaels, now why did that give me a feeling in the pit of my stomach? I remembered him at our visits, mid fifties, well dressed, well spoken and extremely pompous.

"I'll go, Santos, you're with me. Don every search you can on Senator Stephen Michaels"

I might be going out on a limb here, but I needed to trust my instincts, and my instincts were telling me he was the one. Tank gave me a look, as if to say "You sure?"

"I've got a gut feel about this"

"I'll send a team as backup to come in from the other direction, stay on the radio"

"Santos, you ready?"

"Ready to rock n roll"

We were both dressed in our gear, two guns and two knives and took one of the Cayenne SUVs from the garage. I drove in silence, quickly negotiating the quiet streets arriving at the gates of the Senators mansion. Using the over ride code on the gates we made our way down the drive toward the house. The lights were all on, and I could hear the peel of the alarms. Unspoken we separated; I went around the back as Santos began to inspect the front for evidence of a break-in. At the rear of the house I'm sure I saw movement out toward the wooded area, a gentleman was stood by the open doors of a conservatory, dressed in a dressing gown. Maybe I'd been wrong and he'd been asleep when someone tried to open those large glass doors. I approached the man, aware of my surroundings.

"Senator Michaels? Rangeman patrol, you're alarm triggered showing a break-in"

"Oh, it 's all a misunderstanding, one of my men decided to open the door to go for a smoke, he didn't realize it was alarmed"

At that moment Santos came around and stood next to me.

"Do you need us to reset the alarm?"

"No, no, Jackson's on it"

At that moment the sound stopped abruptly, I stepped closer to the Senator, and that's when it hit me, the sweet smell of someone having been sick. Now don't get me wrong, I don't in any way like that smell, but when you have a wife who still throws up in the confines of your bathroom, it's a smell I've become very sensitive to. He pulled his dressing gown tighter around himself, but not before I noticed he was still fully dressed underneath and if I wasn't mistaken he looked as though he had the beginning of bruises on his face.

"Well Mr. Michaels, we'll do a perimeter search just to make sure that the grounds are secure"

"No need, just a false alarm, err, thank you for responding so quickly"

I gave Santos a small nod and turned to leave, turning my mic and bud on.

"Tank, send a team to search the grounds, but be aware hostiles in the area"

As we approached the SUV I peeled away on foot into the garden area as Santos drove the car out of the gates, he'd park the car and double back.

"Got your back Ranger, car's outside, hidden, I'm about twenty foot behind you"

"I'm heading for the wooded area, you follow the perimeter and head in from there. I could feel Steph was near, I just hoped and prayed I found her before those henchmen did. The moon had now disappeared behind cloud and left the woods in total darkness, I moved carefully between the trees trying to pick out anything that might give me a clue. The grounds were large but eventually ended with a strong fence to prevent any intruders getting into the property. Up ahead, I'm sure I heard voices, and yes there were the beams of their flashlights, as I gained distance they obviously weren't bothered about being quiet.

"She's just ahead of us, in front of the fence, she can't go any further, you go to the left and I'll head her off from the right, use your light on her, then she'll be sure to know we're coming for her"

"The boss said he wants her alive"

"Yeah well, what the boss wants he don't always get, besides she'll be alive, just hurting some"

As I came closer to them beams of light illuminated my Babe, she was away from the wall, stood straight and tall with her eyes closed in a position of readiness, I was still too far away to take either man out and shooting wasn't an option with Steph so close to them.

"Santos, go for the one on the left, Stephs right"

"Roger"

As the man on her right approached her she launched herself, taking the guy by absolute surprise, she pivoted low to the ground and as her body spun brought her foot up onto his shoulder, knocking the torch out of his hand, and him to the ground. The torch went out, but when the other guy tried to illuminate her with his, she was gone. I heard scuffling from my left, Santos I hoped.

"Got him subdued and cuffed"

Good now where was my Babe. I didn't have time to think as another umph came through the air, she'd come up behind him and knocked him out cold, how the hell had she done that. I smiled as I started to walk toward her, my footsteps obviously loud enough to hear, but she didn't turn around.

"I knew you'd come for me"

Santos was to her before me and as he secured the second man she turned and started to walk toward me, then her smile froze and her gaze was on something behind me.

"You bitch, all you had to do was give me that stuff, now you'll suffer, you'll hand over where everything is or I'll shoot your dear husband in the back"

The Senator had come up behind me and I hadn't realized, shit, so much for being aware of my surroundings, I'd been too engrossed in making sure that Steph was safe. Steph stood still and looked beyond me to where Stephen Michaels obviously stood.

"Why, at least tell me why you're doing this?"

"I'm not giving away my secrets to someone like you"

She closed her eyes and seemed to ground herself, then raised her arm with a gun in her hand pointing toward me, where the hell had she got the gun? But that wasn't my biggest concern here.

"You going to shoot your own husband for me?"

Obviously she'd focused onto exactly where his voice had come from, she gave an infinitesimal nod of her toward her right, her eyes still closed, body in a shooting stance, was I supposed to move to my right or was she going to shoot to my right? As her finger pulled the trigger I dropped and rolled to my left, I swear I felt the air pressure increase as the bullet passed by my head, and then there was silence.

"Fuck, Beautiful, that was a hell of a shot"

She laughed; honest to god she laughed and came up to me holding her hand out to help me to my feet.

"Thank you"

"Babe, what for, you got your man?"

"For trusting me to take the shot"

I pulled her to me, savoring the feeling of her in my arms, then tried to kiss her with all the pent up emotion I had been feeling, but she pulled away.

"Babe?"

"I must smell and taste of sick"

"I don't care, you smell and feel like you, my Babe"

With that she closed the space between giving me a passionate kiss, a cough behind us had me turning to look at Santos.

"Err, what we going to do about him?"

Santos had his foot on Michael's chest and a gun pointed at his head, blood was pooling on his shoulder where the bullet had hit him.

"I want to talk with him, he owes me"

Steph had walked over to the man and was now bent down next to him.

"I want some answers"

He grunted, obviously deciding not to answer, that's when Steph pushed the muzzle of her gun into the shoulder wound hard enough for him to grimace, loudly.

"I can always put another bullet in here you know"

When had Steph become so forceful and strong?

"You put me and my baby at risk, so I will get my answers"

And there it was, her eyes shone with anger, her face was set as in stone, Mama bear had come to the surface and god help anyone who tried to threaten her. Michaels obviously saw the same look of absolute determination on her face and started talking, slowly and quietly at first but then took on an attitude of defiance, as though he had every right to behave the way he had. I spoke into my mic for Tank to pick up.

"Make sure you get a recording of this"

"It's that stupid bitches fault, father should have gotten rid of her at the start"

"You mean Elspeth?"

"Yes, he told me how whinny she became when she was little, so he arranged for someone to take her out of the country. He carried on working as part of the gendarmerie and built up a fortune from the loot he collected. When he came to America he was a very rich and successful businessman, easy for him to change his name. He married my mother, and even though he was older than her, I was born. Then that stupid half sister of mine cottoned on to who he was, he wouldn't acknowledge her and died soon after. She seemed to disappear and I didn't hear from her until about a year ago, she tried to blackmail me, me a Senator, so I decided to device a scheme to get back those documents"

Steph was now fully intrigued and I could see her putting the pieces together.

"What did you think were in the documents?"

"Details of what my father had done, the money he'd taken, it would have finished me if people found out. She found out about Grossman and then remembered about his visits to that bank, we put together a plan to have you release the documents so I'd leave with my name intact and she thought she'd take any money or valuables. You see my father always said there were pieces of jewelry worth millions that disappeared when Grossman went"

"Didn't go to plan did it Mr. Michaels?"

"No, she got too many people involved, that good for nothing son of hers and grandson, then using those biker thugs, it was doomed from the start"

"Why did she hate you?"  
"Because father wouldn't acknowledge her as his daughter and she was jealous of me, I honestly thought she would give up my name when she was caught"

Steph signed and stood up.

"She felt betrayed by him"

Blue and white lights were flashing in the distance, the police had arrived and as if on queue Eddie and a plain clothed detective walked from the trees toward us.

"Steph, you OK?"

"Fine thanks Eddie, you need us to stay?"

"Nah, Tank transmitted everything through to us, so we're up to date. If you and Ranger can call into the station to sign statements in the next couple of days we should be good"

I shook hands with Eddie and with an arm around Steph we began to make our way back to the front entrance of the grounds.

"So. I'm gonna be an uncle then?"

Trust Santos to pick on that. Hearing no reply he decided to continue.

"Can't wait for a mini Ranger or Bombshell to hit the corridors, shit we won't know what's hit us"

Steph was tiring as we walked, so I swept her up into my arms, she smiled at me.

"It's OK, we need to tell people. Lester can you please keep it a secret until I've had my first appointment with the doctor?"

"No problem, for you Beautiful, anything"

Epilogue

I am sat quietly within the hustle and bustle all around me. I would say someone looking at me would think I was contemplating, and I suppose I was. There's nothing more soul baring than remembering things that have happened to you, how you spoke with someone, listened to another and I suppose reacted to a situation. Sudden noises had me looking up, I wasn't sitting with my back to the wall, but my viewpoint gave me a panorama of all that was happening around me. I focused beyond the small area I was in, to the movement of people beyond, so many people, all of them intent on where they were going, a single purpose in mind. Some were walking, others almost at a run, moving in all directions, yet seldom coming into contact with anyone else. There were colours from coats and scarfs, with every mode of fashion I had ever seen. Old people, with faces that could tell you a lifetime of stories, unseeing eyes, shuffling with their sticks and walkers. Young mothers with toddlers running to keep up, being held so tightly by their little hands. And the young business men and women, striding with a confidence of power, in their suits and shiny new shoes, heads held high and shoulders back, giving out an aura that had others moving out of their way. A rumble reverberated through the floor signaling the arrival of another train, then as if by magic a surge of people were leaving the hallway on their way home or back to work on the train that had just arrived. I returned my thoughts to the task at hand, and my mind to the thoughts I needed to organize. My life had changed in so many ways, I could never have envisaged, never have dreamed of how different my life had become and I would never return to the way I had once lived before. But that was not what I needed to think about, I had to concentrate, but I was having an internal fight with myself, do I or don't I? Am I important enough? Will anyone be interested? Will I upset or alienate others? Or will someone say "well done"? Someone had told me I needed to make the decision for me, for how I would feel. So here I go again a decision that I needed to make, that would allow me to move forward with a clear conscience, proud of who I was and where I had come from, perhaps also for those who were no longer here to make that decision. After the events unfolded following the demise of a very popular Senator Stephen Michaels I was inundated with letters, some with praise and admiration, others scorn, the aforementioned man was now serving a very long sentence in prison and if the General who came to see me had anything to do with it he'd never get released. Yes I'd met the General and he'd tried to intimidate me, no chance, he said he'd met his match in me and wished Carlos the best of luck, what was that all about? As my pregnancy continued I became so bored, cooped up and with no way to fly, though the sleepiness had lessened, I sometimes enjoyed the freedom to do as I wanted. No bounty hunting but lots of searches and Carlos even had me with him at client meetings; you know to give that female perspective. Well I was restless and still mulling over all the information I'd come across. Grandma hadn't truly recovered from her ordeal and was becoming weaker by the day, so I decided I wanted to write down a history of my family and yes just the Hungarian side, I didn't think of that woman as my mother any more and my father had moved away leaving a very bitchy sister. So I spent every afternoon I could sat in my old apartment and together, my Grandmother and I, wrote all her memories down and I added those fateful events that had turned my world inside out, recounting the action of a family at war with each other through their greed and hatred. I named names and places and what had happened me, right up to the eventual outcome of my happy ever after with the love of my life. Yes Carlos and I were even more in love than I thought possible, living between Rangeman and the beach house. I didn't use real names for my new best friends; theirs was a friendship that had grown, as I might add had Bobby's and Angels.

By the time I had completed the story my Grandmother simply gave up, she said it was time for her to join her parents and husband, I also think the actions of my mother weighed heavily on her. We did her proud though, with an open casket, where she looked peaceful and at rest, supplying lots of cookies for all the mourners who turned out. Not long after I received an invitation to allow my Great Grandfathers jewelry to be included in an exhibition dedicated to people whose skills and crafts had been lost during the war. No way was Carlos allowing me to travel, so eleven months later I found myself in the beautiful city of Budapest, my jewelry on display, and yes we had an army with us to ensure their protection and my safety. I'd brought my story with me, saved to a file on a USB, not sure exactly why, I'd talked a lot with Carlos as to what I should do with it.

A tingle on my neck had me looking up from the screen in front of me toward the doorway. My eyes looked into deep brown ones, a smile at the corners and a grin across his face. He walked with determination weaving through the desks and chairs to sit down next to me.

"How's it going Babe?"

"Just about there, I've uploaded the file and put in the addresses, just ready to hit the send button"

"Proud of you Babe"

Yes, and I was proud of myself as well, we'd come through so much together and I felt a peace wash across me. At that moment three more people surrounded us, waiting expectantly.

"Beautiful, you done yet, because I swear this little rascal is ready to run off"

I looked toward the bundle now being held tightly in Lester's arms, squirming to be let go of.

"Come here my little Tesoro"

Arms automatically came out toward me and I took my precious little bundle, dressed in blue and black, yeah I compromised on the black to stop Lester from whining. Carlos held tight to his small bundle, dressed similarly but with pink and black, she wasn't going to relinquish the hold of her father, because she knew too well how she could manipulate that father of hers. Yes two children, fraternal twins, and now ten months old, delightful and charming, yet imps at the same time. I nuzzled our son against my cheek, his dark, straight hair soft against my face and his darker skin contrasting against my hands. He was his mummy's boy, the looks of his father with those soft brown eyes but the character of me inside, he was the more outward going of the two, chattier and loved his food, but his protection for his sister was almost psychic, I swear they had a connection that only they knew about. His sister, now almost asleep was so different, she had my blue eyes, which is why I think Carlos was so enraptured by her, straight brown hair and skin the same tone as her brothers but lighter than their fathers. She had some of my qualities, she loved to sleep and I'm sure she had that spidey sense of mine, but beyond that she was her fathers daughter, quiet, thoughtful and loved to solve a puzzle.

"Babe, you going to hit send? Then we can get on our way back home"

I nodded, and started to type the introduction to go along with the attached file, then hit send, it going out to a variety of news papers, publishers and the internet at large.

"This story is for my children, Edina and Mikeás, as a testament to their heritage, and in memory of their ancestors who lived so bravely. For Edna Mazur, Mikeás and Helene Stefanie, Thomas and Rebeka Grossman, There must be justice even though the heavens fall

Free your heart from hatred

Free your mind from worries

Live simply

Give more

Expect less


End file.
